


A Bloody Path

by UnapologeticallyMeatwad



Category: Kim Possible (Cartoon)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Angst and Romance, Bisexual Female Character, Espionage, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Moral Ambiguity, Slow Burn, Spies & Secret Agents, occasional smut
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-05
Updated: 2021-02-19
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:29:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 25
Words: 66,837
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26841430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UnapologeticallyMeatwad/pseuds/UnapologeticallyMeatwad
Summary: A down-on-her-luck Kim Possible has just broken up with Ron after a five year relationship. Trying to sink away into the civilian life of your everyday New York City college kid, she wrestles with her demons and vices. But then, a chance encounter with Shego changes her life.
Relationships: Kim Possible/Shego
Comments: 70
Kudos: 104





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! Thanks for opening this fic. I'll post trigger warnings for chapters as they come by. : ) 
> 
> CW: alcohol, sexual assault (brief), vomit

The man’s breath is hot on Kim’s neck. He’s aggressive, pinning her wrists to the brick wall of the alley with just one arm, his other hand reaching to grab at her thigh. She’s caked in sweat, and he breathes. so. loud. Like a horrible monster, in and out, these guttural growls.

Her head lolls to the side; he put something in her drink. She picked up on it pretty quickly, but by that point it was too late.

He squeezes her thigh way too roughly, fingers tapping their way up to her crotch. She waits until he’s so close, when his breath is the loudest—

—and kicks him in the fucking dick. 

He screams and falls off her. Kim slumps for a second, almost tumbling over from her own lack of balance and looks at the man. “Do you have any idea who I am?” she spits. Literally  _ spits _ at the ground.

He sneers and runs at her. Kim grapples him and turns on her heel, slamming into the wall he pinned her to. She knees him in the groin again, and punches him in the face. She definitely sees blood spray from his mouth. And he falls. 

She flips him over with her foot and stabs him in the dick one last time with the pointed heel to her shoe. 

“Do it again to anyone else and I will find you, buddy.”

Kim sees her breath hover and dissipate in the musty air. She’s losing focus fast. Roofied, alone, late. Her head is pounding. If she were any other girl… it’d be over. But she’s been trained on how to fight villains while under  _ heavy _ sedatives. Hell, she’s been given sedatives to build up an immunity for when she needs to  _ go. _

Not that she does that anymore. But she can last a while longer if she’s smart.

She collapses besides the man’s unconscious body, kicking off her heels and letting her bare feet rest on the dirty ground. She rubs her bare arms, black dress pulling up way past her thigh. This was such a bad idea. 

And fuck, it’s going to be expensive getting a Lyft home this late. Like really expensive. In New York City on a Saturday night at 2am? Fuggedaboutit. 

In her purse, she has the Kimmunicator. Untouched, possibly in need of a good charge. She could probably call Wade and whip up some kind of easy (and free) transport home. But she’d really prefer not to bother him with her stupid shit. So she gets a Lyft just like any other girl, and it’s a full car. Jam-packed with drunks like her, definitely more than is legally allowed. But folks keep calling in Lyfts without being honest about how many people they’re bringing, and the drivers are too apathetic to care.

She definitely passes out at some point in the backseat. The only thing that wakes her up is the five different people screaming in her face that they are at her stop.

The first thing she does is vomit inside of the fake plants outside the apartment complex’s doors. Though it gives her some kind of relief, though she knows she’ll feel it in the morning. Thankfully, when she does get inside, the apartment is empty. The other girls are still out partying, leaving Kim to wallows in her own misery. Hopefully she’ll oversleep and no one will know she got roofied and went home without calling for help. 

Kim collapses on her bed and gets the spins immediately. She’s still but everything is swirling. So she goes to the bathroom and she takes care of it. 

Kim’s a heavy weight too. Ron was always the one who’d get wasted too fast, and she’d have to spend the next day doting over him. But it was cute. Sort of. For a while. Not always though, that’s for sure.

She checks her phone, cheek pressed up against the toilet, just waiting for the next wave to come. There’s a few texts. Specifically one from Ron. She knows she really shouldn’t be reading that kind of shit from him right now, especially when she’s wasted. 

So when she wakes up the next morning, she’s almost thankful that she fucking passed out over the stupid roofie at that exact moment. When she was most considering actually reading one of Ron’s stupid texts for once.

* * *

Kim also finds that when she wakes up that she’s in her pajamas and also in her bed. Noticeably sleeping on her slide, with a box behind her so she can’t turn over. “Huh?” she looks around, her nasty black dress is on the floor. Oh, this is embarrassing. 

Kim looks across her small, cramped room to see her roomie sound asleep. She looks so pretty. 

How the fuck does she manage it? What, is she doing her hair and makeup before bed? Ugh. 

Kim has considered her asking her out but eh… she knows it wouldn’t work out. Erica’s too much of a normie, and maybe Kim has been playing normie for the past few years, but it’s just postponing the inevitable.

Kim squints as she looks into the sunlight. It fucking burns. But getting rid of the light means getting up to close the blinds, and she’s hungover as fuck. What day is it, fuck, what time is it? Everything’s fuzzy, she doesn’t remember too much from last night. Mostly just the text from Ron, not even what it said, just that he texted. 

Huh, her phone’s off. It was fully charged—

Kim slumps against the bed. Her roomies seriously take such good care of her. She senses an intervention though, so she should probably sleep in to put it off as long as possible. But when she waits up like five hours after that, she feels even worse. Damn. 

She doesn’t really _ want _ to know what time it is, but she figures she should get up. It’s very awkward when she goes into the kitchen and finds half her roommates (four of eight) crowded around the counter, looking great and normal.

It’s because when they go out together, they support each other and let no one go over the edge. And Kim is stumbling around with bloodshot eyes and frayed hair. 

“Hi,” she rasps. “Thanks for helping me last night.”

“It’s alright,” one of the girls, Jasmine, says. “We all have those nights, Kim. Just maybe come with us from now on?”

Kim frowns. “Okay. Um. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay,” one of them says.

It’s not okay though. She knows she shouldn’t blame herself, but she made the decisions that lead up to that. And even though it was brief, and the creep was unsuccessful, she can feel phantom fingers burn into her thigh. She can feel his raspy breath down her neck. Her skin crawls and it will probably never go away. 

“Thanks guys,” she sighs.

* * *

Kim is a hot mess, she won’t deny it. She’s felt it coming for the past few years now, it just got worse a few weeks back when  _ it _ finally happened.

But right after the Lowardian Invasion, Kim had uh, you could call it a mental breakdown. It was just too much. The world just stayed the same. At least on a surface level.

But behind-the-scenes, governments were freaking out and escalating their military budgets to create weaponry that could reasonably stop an alien invasion. Which lead to a blitzkrieg of an arms’ race, and no one cared. To the media, it’s like nothing ever happened,  _ because Kim Possible saved the day once again _ . 

It’s like she was propaganda, or a cover-up or something.

Ron wanted to stay in Middleton and keep doing missions. They both took a gap year to focus on missions, maybe to officially become Global Justice agents. Kim didn’t like it, but she went along with it because she wasn’t ready for college. Or at least she thought she wasn’t. 

That year sucked. Kim doesn’t like thinking about it. Just lots of fights between her and Ron with the occasional disappointing return of ‘reformed’ supervillains like Drakken. 

Ron knew it sucked too. So they both started college the next year. Together. In Middleton. And that felt more normal. For Ron at least. He was exactly like he was in high school. But Kim didn’t want that at all. It was just the same faces every day. Monique, Felix, Ron, Brick, so many, just _ stayed _ in Middleton. Where Kim is worshipped. 

Kim looked Ron in the eye, covered in dirt, her graduation robes in tatters, and yelled, “Don’t you get that I’m scared too?” 

And Ron acted like it never happened. 

So Kim stopped it. She ended Team Possible, transferred to a different college. Ron and her went long distance while she attended Quinnipiac University. But everyone on campus saw her as some kind of hero, and it got overwhelming. No one wanted to be her friend, or like, they did, but for the wrong reasons. It was never _ just  _ Kim, it was _ always _ Kim Possible, Teenage Hero.

So Kim switched to online school only for her first semester of sophomore year. But then she got lonely, and had to keep visiting her parents in Middleton, and while it felt good in the moment, she’d come home and cry into her pillow because nothing was changing. She wasn’t growing.

Then Kim thought about it. She wanted to be near people, but near no one that could clock her as a celebrity. She needed to be a face in the crowd, and immediately thought of those big crowd shots in movies shot in New York City where it’s just a wave of faces shifting down the packed sidewalks. So she moved to New York and it worked. For a while at least. 

Maybe people clocked her in NYC, but celebrities are so common it was never a big deal. But even still, there was  _ Ron _ . She was still dating  _ Ron _ . 

Ron who still lived in Middleton, Colorado. Who still called her KP and acted like nothing ever happened during Lowardia. Who didn’t understand a goddamned thing she told him about. Who shrugged every problem off to  _ marinate _ . Who she never even loved _ that way. _

So Kim dumped him. Over the phone. If she did it in person, she knows he’d lure her back in. That was a few weeks ago now, but he won’t stop texting her. It’s all the same, and she’s had to break up with him at least five times now. She doesn’t know what else she can say, and now she’s becoming bitter with him. 

She didn’t want that. She didn’t want to be bitter. He doesn’t deserve that.

But his voice just keeps screaming in her ears, and it won’t stop. He needs to go. They’re not meant for each other. How does he not understand?

* * *

It’s two in the afternoon when Kim realizes she has a problem; she’s at some random bar drinking hard liquor. She doesn’t even really understand the thought process that brought her here. Her girlfriends are all at home, binge watching  _ New Girl _ or something. There’s a party tonight they’re all going to, so they’re just sticking together for the day. Except for Kim. Who is antsy. And doesn’t want to just hang.

Kim is restless. She needs to keep going. 

New York City was supposed to be the cure to her depression. Breaking up with Ron was supposed to be freeing. Now she feels more trapped than ever, and alcohol is her vice. She groans and pushes the drink away from her, slumping over the counter. She still hasn’t checked her bank account to see how bad that bender last week was for her. 

Fucking New York. 

“I’m closing my tab,” she tells the bartender compulsively. Why is she doing this to herself.

Nothing feels like anything. She’s constantly dissociating. She can’t even think of the last time she’s really been fully happy for an entire day, or even the majority of a day. It’s just blips of joy stuck between long silences of dread.

So Kim pulls out the Kimmunicator and turns it on. 

“Hey Wade,” she says dryly.

“ _ Whoa, Kim? _ ” Wade says in a much deeper voice than she’s used to. He’s seventeen now. “ _ Hold up, I’m in a meeting, let me just… hey guys, I gotta plug out. Sorry _ .” He looks to Kim. “ _ H-hey. What’s up? Long time no see, Kim. _ ”

“Yeah, hi,” she offers a weak smile. She’s starting to feel really bad now. Wade clearly wants to catch up and she just wants to do a transaction with him. “I’d love to catch up, but I actually called because um… I was wondering if you could sitch me.”

“Yooooo,” Wade leans back in stunned wonderment. “Really?”

Kim sighs. Wade was always more emotionally introspective than Ron and he knows there’s a problem here. She rests her elbows on the bar, leaning the Kimmunicator up against her empty glass of booze. “Yeah.”

“Damn,” Wade says. “You okay? Your cheeks are a little flushed.”

“I’m drunk.”

“Mm, I figured, uh, maybe you don’t want to do this...”

“I’ll be fine later,” Kim snaps. “Sorry, I just… I think it would help. We can catch up when I’m sober.”

Wade stares at her completely still. “I’d like that a lot, Kim. Um, I got one thing on my map, you’re in New York, right? I don’t think you’d like it though so…”

She grimaces and leans in, staring daggers at him. “Why.”

“Well,” he bites his lip. “It’s Shego.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! This is definitely going to be a very angsty fic haha. But there will be a lot of fun chapters throughout. Next chapter, Kim will meet Shego. 
> 
> Also, I mention it later but I've de-aged Shego for this. Kim and her are both 22 for this story.
> 
> Posted on August 5, 2020:  
> Believe it or not, I already have 7 chapters written already! So I'll be posting new entries every three days or so until I catch up. : ) I love writing this. It's really not my comfort zone which is why I like it.
> 
> You can [follow me on Twitter](https://twitter.com/IAmLordMeatwad) for tweets about my cats and fanfic, and [follow me on Insta](https://www.instagram.com/katrinajagelski/) for similar stuff. Occasionally I do live reads for my original fiction and fanfic.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kim sees Shego for the first time in years, but things don't go as planned and Kim walks away feeling a little hurt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> cw: nudity

“Kim, are you sure you don’t wanna—”

Kim turns to her left and sees her room mate, Erica, looking absolutely stunning, and here she is in baggy cargo pants and a black crop top. 

“—you’re relapsing,” Erica says it like she’s talking to some kind of mental patient. She rushes over to Kim, who immediately hides what she’s holding behind her back. “Yo, don’t do it. C’mon. Come out with us, it’ll make you feel good.”

Kim blushes, feeling a little embarrassed talking to such a pretty girl about this. Even though it is her roommate. God she wishes she would just ask her out already. “Um. No, not tonight.”

“But it’s Saturday, Kim!” Erica whines, touching Kim’s wrists right underneath the hem of her thick ass gray gauntlets. She caresses the tendons. “Pleeeeeease.”

“No,” Kim says firmly. “I need this tonight. I’m… going through some stuff, okay?”

“Okay,” Erica bites her tongue. “You don’t want the others to know, right?”

“No,” Kim says, relaxing finally. “Please keep it between us, just say I’m still hungover or…”

Erica guides Kim’s wrists back to the front and center, and her eyes go super wide in delight, because she finally sees what Kim is holding onto: makeup and an eye pencil. Kim  _ never _ puts on makeup and eyeliner. 

Kim locks away from Erica and lets her take it, so she can do a better job at smacking it on Kim’s face. “So, you want to talk about it?” Erica asks.

Kim blushes, staring at herself in the mirror, feeling awful foolish. “Um. It’s… a mission. Like a legit mission. But uh…”

“You can say it,” Erica taunts, hips bobbing. “Are you getting back together with—”

“Ew,” Kim shakes her head aggressively. “No.”

Erica grabs Kim by the jaw and holds her in place. “Steady or I’ll fuck it up.”

“Right,” Kim sighs. “It’s… a girl.”

“Ooh. How old?”

“Our age.”

“She single?”

“I dunno.”

“And queer?”

“Oh, almost certainly,” Kim just kind of knows that one. She always connects really well with other queer people even without knowing they’re queer, and with Shego and Kim it was  _ electric _ . She misses it. 

“And she’s… a criminal?”

“Yeah. I mean, I’m not… you know,” Kim clicks her heels together. “But uh, I’d like to at least look nice, you know. I’m… embarrassed to be doing this.”

“You shouldn’t,” Erica is so delicate with Kim’s skin. “God, you look prettier than me now.”

“For now,” Kim shakes her head, catching her reflection. Erica gave her cat ears around the eyes and it does actually make her feel really cute for once. It’s a nice femme edge to her rough and tumble butch look. “She’ll probably try to fight me and I’ll end up sweating all this gunk off… thanks, Erica. Um. It means a lot.”

“Anytime, Kim,” Erica puts the makeup away. “You know it’s okay for you to tell us stuff, yeah?”

“Yeah, I know,” Kim echoes, gazing back into the mirror. Aside from the makeup, it’s like nothing has changed. It’s the same Kim she’s always seen in her mission gear. God, Ron would be  _ pissed _ if he found out about this somehow… she’s kind of pissed at herself. She swore this off for a really good season and now on a whim she’s back.

She  _ really  _ doesn’t know what she’s doing.

* * *

It’s a pretty standard jewel heist. Definitely being played by the book. Kim wonders as she guards the massive honkin’ diamond in the museum whether or not it's part of some secret scheme to take over the world, or if it’s just to make a lot of money really quickly.  _ Probably _ the latter. There was an incredibly high profile break between Shego and Drakken a few years back. Even Kim, out of the ring as it were, heard about it so it must have been bad.

It’s just a question if Shego is working for herself or others.

After an hour or so, Kim even begins to doubt that this heist is actually going to go down. Kim gets so bored she disables some security cameras and takes a walk through the museum herself. But eventually, it becomes obvious that she’s not alone so she retakes her station in front of the diamond in its glass case. 

“Wow _ ie _ ,” Shego boldly announces from the shadows. “Did you come out of retirement all just for me?”

Shego steps into the light and she’s… well, she’s always been gorgeous but tonight is just… mesmerizing. Kim hasn’t seen Shego since they were both teenagers after all.

Shego’s decked to the nines in a three piece suit and emerald green blouse. With the sharp looking tie, she looks so… powerful. Like she’s the leader of something. Definitely no association with Drakken anymore. Good for her.

Her body is lithe as ever, and she definitely fills out that suit of hers really well. Kim misses the skintight number but hey, things change. It’s nice to see a change of pace.

“No, it’s a coincidence,” Kim leans back into a fighting stance, fists clenched. Now she’s getting a little nervous. What was she thinking? She hasn’t sparred or even worked out for years. Because it brought back too many painful memories. Now she has to go toe to toe with her deadliest foe? 

Smart, Kim. Real Smart.

“That’s weak,” Shego drawls, walking at her with so much bounce in her step. “I’m stealing that diamond.”

“No you’re not,” Kim taunts right back.

“Oy, even your quips are boring,” Shego conjures a ball of plasma and tosses it up and down a few times before hurling it at Kim. 

Kim somersaults out of the way, and avoids it. The thing doesn’t even blast the floor open, it just singes it in black ash. Shego throws another volley, this one a little faster, and Kim flips past it. It’s obvious right out of the gate that Shego’s testing her.

And while testing her, Shego is also leaving herself super open to attack. But Kim doesn’t want to go for low hanging fruit. She wants to pass the test. So she gives it her all and dodges six volleys before one nails right in the stomach, pushing her onto the ground in a heap. It burns her bare skin and she remembers why she ditched the crop top for a hot second.

“Yup, just like I figured,” Shego cackles, sprinting up to Kim. She goes for a kick that Kim dodges pretty easily, and then goes for a swipe at her face. Kim dodges that too and tries to keep up. It’s exhausting. Kim used to do this every day, laughing as she skipped around, and currently Shego’s not even breaking a sweat while Kim is almost ready to ask for a breather.

God, Shego doesn’t even have to make a mean joke or anything, just that stupid, permanent smirk on her ghastly white face makes Kim so angry. And that’s when Kim finally lands one. Just a standard punch to the face but it’s something, and it spikes her adrenaline way high to feel the flesh under her knuckle. But it dies just as fast when Shego throttles Kim against one of the stone pillars in the museum, holding her by the jaw. 

Kim wriggles and writhes but she can’t get out of Shego’s grip. “What do you want?” she coughs.

“I’m just… checking something,” Shego says carefully, squeezing Kim in the bicep. Kim hates to admit it, but Shego’s able to pinch more fat than she would have a few years back. Shego continues feeling Kim’s body and it tickles, it’s just these gentle touches, and it feels kinda nice. Except when Shego squeezes Kim’s thigh, exactly where that creep in the alley…

“Not there,” Kim interrupts, and she hates that her voice shakes. 

Shego catches it, but doesn’t ask why. Shego would never make fun of something like that, contrary to what Kim thought about her in high school. “You’ve put on a healthy amount of weight, Princess… and um, you’ve been drinking?”

This was such a mistake. Kim must look like such an idiot. 

So Kim doesn’t say anything, figuring her reddening cheeks and bad breath will say enough. 

“Damn,” Shego finally lets go and Kim drops to the floor. She was held up only a few inches but it still makes her feel like such a loser. “I don’t know. It’s just not  _ fun _ for me like this, no offense.”

Kim nods. “Wh-what do you mean?”

Shego raises an eyebrow. “I mean… you  _ liked _ our fights back in the day, right?”

Kim really did. It was some of the most fun she ever had. “Well, um… kinda.” She hates that she’s blushing, Shego is noticing and speaking noticeably more soft than she ever has with her.

Shego finally breaks into the smile a normal human being might make, and shakes her head. “I loved ‘em, Kimmie. You pushed me to try my best, and I don’t know. It’s fine if you’re not… y’know, in top form, is all I’m saying. But this is just bringing me down tonight.”

Maybe this is what Kim wanted out of tonight. Some real talk with Shego. Shego would get what Kim’s going through probably. 

“Sorry,” Shego turns away. “I probably sound like a bitch. Yo, I’ll let you have this one. I won’t steal the diamond, and uh, next time, if you decide to… keep at it?” She shrugs. “I won’t go easy on you.”

Kim should really just say something. She’s spent the past few years feeling powerless, and this is such a microcosm of everything that’s happened.

“I’m not just that,” Kim says boldly.

Shego frowns, and then chuckles. “What are you talking about?”

Kim could probably make something happen right here and now, she bets. Make a sultry smile and invite Shego over. But feels kinda wrong, that’s not what she’d want with Shego in this particular moment. She didn’t put on the stupid outfit just for a booty call. 

She misses Shego. A lot.

“I’m not just  _ Kim Possible, Teen Hero _ ,” Kim says. “I’m a person, and um, I think it’d be cool if we could… hang out sometime. Be friends.”

Ugh.  _ Be friends _ ? C’mon, Possible. You’re an adult. Act like one. Ask her out.

Shego’s eyebrows raise like she’s briefly considering it, and then she waves it off and turns it away. 

“No thanks,” Shego sighs. “Ugh, I’m getting sloppy too. I’m pretty sure I know what I fucked up to make Nerdlinger notice I was planning this tonight. Next time won’t be so easy. Ugh.” 

Kim notices Shego’s temple throbs. Like she’s under serious pressure here to succeed. It’s… different.

Shego halfasses a wave goodbye. “Ciao, Kimmie!”

Kim stands there for a long time, just kinda thinking. Her body is practically vibrating with energy. Shego does that to her. She needs to do something, some _ one _ , and right. now. 

* * *

Kim rings the door to Bonnie’s swanky New York City penthouse and waits patiently, hands on her hips. The door opens promptly, and Se ñ or Senior Jr. stands high over her with a pouty face. 

“Kim Possible!” Junior shouts in his girlishly high voice. “You’re… uh… wow, you… um, how do I say…”

“What?!” Bonnie shrieks in the background. “Kim’s here? C’mon Kim, I’m busy, you could have at least texted me that…”

Bonnie steps out in her bathrobe, hair damp from a recent shower, and freezes when she sees Kim. 

Kim stands in Bonnie’s doorway completely naked, all of her things packed away in the briefcase hanging off her fingers. She cocks her hip to one side and smirks at Bonnie, eyes laser focused on her. 

Bonnie blinks a few times and shakes it off, looking incredibly flattered. She tosses her phone over to Junior and snaps her fingers. “Get out and grab groceries. The list is in my notes.” 

“B-but my turtledove,” Junior whines, staring at Kim once again. “It’s late, and…”

“Junior,” Bonnie glares. “Get. Going.”

Junior bows his head and steps out the door, slamming it behind him. Poor boy. Kim still doesn’t understand why he is tolerating any of this. They are clearly not in love with each other. Like at all. 

Bonnie looks Kim over again, from head to toe. Even though Kim has gained a little weight here and there, she still looks damn fine, at least in her opinion. 

“If we’re doing this,” Bonnie says very carefully. “You’re topping me, and I want to be ravaged tonight.” 

Kim tosses the briefcase and onto the counter and grabs Bonnie’s sash, pulling it away. She starts hard, slamming Bonnie into the hallway wall and digging her hand down her flannel pants, other hand hastily undoing the buttons. 

“I will destroy you,” Kim whispers into Bonnie’s ear.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> : ) 
> 
> Next chapter is incredibly steamy haha. As of publishing on October 8th, I have written 10 chapters to this story. Chapter 3 will be online on October 11th. See ya then!
> 
> You can [follow me on Twitter](https://twitter.com/IAmLordMeatwad) for tweets about my cats and fanfic, and [follow me on Insta](https://www.instagram.com/katrinajagelski/) for similar stuff. Occasionally I do live reads for my original fiction and fanfic.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kim and Bonnie have a good time, but it's not enough.

No one at Middleton High ever found out about Kim and Bonnie. It was probably the hardest secret Kim ever held on to. It happened before she came out to Ron and her parents as bi during that awful gap year after Lowardia. Sometime during sophomore year, the two girls just started… clicking. 

Kim made the first move. Shyly came into Bonnie’s lockerroom shower and asked if they could make out and it just sort of went from there. It was very sexual, and very frequent, and eventually Kim started to actually _like_ Bonnie a lot and they started dating. 

They dated for a few months, but it didn’t really work out. Emotionally, they didn’t understand each other and in terms of the future, they wanted different things. So they had a mutual breakup and ever since then, they’ve just been each other’s best friend with benefits. But that had to stop once Kim started dating Ron. 

And then over Senior year they grew apart.

In sophomore year of college, Kim asked Ron if he’d be okay doing an open relationship with her, and he agreed… so Kim started seeing Bonnie again. Mostly for sex. Ron knew it was a girl Kim wanted, just not _which_ girl. She had a feeling he’d flip if he knew. (Though she also knows that the boy Ron ended up doing something similar with was Felix, so like — whatever.

Hence Kim plowing into Bonnie and eating her out. Hence Kim grinding her body against Bonnie’s and really feeling that hot skin. Hence Kim eviscerating Bonnie as she promised she would. When Kim sees Bonnie, she absolutely 100% is hungry.

And yes, she did take the elevator up naked like that, rather than just undressing before knocking on the door. Big risk being a former celebrity, but Bonnie likes to be treated like a queen, and it’s part of their _thing_.

“Can I ask you something?” Bonnie moans while Kim is biting into her neck. 

“Mhm,” Kim mumbles.

“What happened?” Bonnie gasps. “Flip over and tell me.”

Kim pulls her away, lips wet. “You sure? I can keep—”

Bonnie just gives Kim _the look_ and she groans, flipping over, body caked in sweat. Bonnie slides on top and gently guides two of her fingers inside of Kim, taking it nice and easy, while slowly fondling one of her breasts. 

“There’s a girl,” Kim gasps. “We sparred for a while—”

“It was Shego, wasn’t it?” Bonnie smirks, suddenly picking up the intensity by _a lot_. Kim quivers in place. Kim definitely talked about Shego a lot in high school… but only ever with Bonnie.

Ron just wouldn’t get it. _But Kim, she tries to kill us all the time!_ she can imagine him shrieking.

“Y-yeah, Shego,” Kim blushes. “But she called it early. Said I’m not fun to fight anymore.”

“Because you’re an alcoholic?” Bonnie laughs, and runs her lips across Kim’s stomach. “And because you got a pot belly?” 

“Yeah,” Kim sighs, trying to keep herself under control.

“Don’t worry, K,” Bonnie lifts her head back up to look at Kim. “She’s an idiot. I love the cute little fat you let yourself put on.”

Kim smiles, and shakes her head. Bonnie always knows just what to say to her. Too bad they suck as an actual couple. It’s confusing, since they still hang out as friends, but… she feels comfortable with where she’s at with her. It’s like the only relationship she has with someone from her old life that she actually _enjoys_.

“I’m just worried I’m losing control of my life,” Kim says as she comes again. “I’m lonely.”

Bonnie makes a pouty face. “You’re really bringing down the mood. Can I hit you?”

Kim considers it. “Yeah.”

Bonnie leers and smacks Kim pretty goddamned hard across the face, and Kim’s adrenaline spikes. She loves it. Every once in a while, they throw in a little sadomasochism. They never really talked about it in an emotionally mature way, so Kim doesn’t have a real explanation. She just figures that in the old days, she’d get beat up all the time and it sucked. 

Now she can let this girl hurt her a little every now and then, and it’s _safe_ and _under her control_. She can master this idea of pain with a little bit of play with Bonnie. She also just kinda likes letting Bonnie dominate her every now and then. After all, she actually hates making decisions. She just wants to be told what to do. 

Kim leans up and slams Bonnie into the headboard, ravishing her with kisses. Back to being top, and God, it’s just a dream come true. 

* * *

Kim wakes up, curled under Bonnie’s arm, Junior awkwardly sleeping behind her in actual pajamas and — oh goddamit, Bonnie got dressed too. It’s just Kim who’s not wearing anything. She doesn’t even remember where she put her clothes. They were like, in a briefcase or something. 

Kim slides out of bed carefully, wandering out into the hall. It is amazing that there exists an apartment like this in New York. The rent must be like thousands upon thousands of dollars. Pretty bored, and with not much to do, Kim decides to make breakfast for her and Bonnie… and Junior because like, he’s just sorta there.

It’d be rude not to, y’know?

Bonnie comes out about a half hour later, and wraps her arms around Kim’s waist, digging her chin into Kim’s shoulder. Kim feels the stiff cloth poke her skin, and can tell Bonnie’s in a suit. Probably off to some Sunday meeting thing for whatever. 

“You really didn’t have to,” Bonnie gently touches around Kim’s crotch, keeping it gentle. “I was going to pick up something but I guess I’ll eat with you. I figured you’d left.”

Kim leans back and gazes at Bonnie, kissing her on the neck, and flipping the omelette for the last time. “You deserve the best.”

It’s part of their play. Just extended a bit beyond the bed. Kim’s naked, Bonnie’s dressed, and Kim made her food. It makes both of them pretty hot. 

“Don’t take this the wrong way,” Bonnie steps back, looking Kim over again. 

Oh, she’s going to tell Kim that she’s desperate and pathetic and needs to stop…

“But you try so hard with me, Kim,” Bonnie says it with a smile, keeping it kind. “But you don’t try so hard with yourself.”

Kim blinks kinda stupidly. “Huh?”

Bonnie shrugs. “You drink yourself away and… I don’t know, you gave up on Shego pretty fast it sounds like. Though I appreciated your passion for _her_. But I don’t know, K. I think you should try again. Be persistent. You’re so beautiful and sweet and…”

Kim feels herself choking up a little, which is also really embarrassing considering the context of it all. Bonnie rushes to her and pulls her in tight. 

“Thanks,” Kim sobs.

Bonnie rubs smooth circles into Kim’s back. Ron used to do that for her but he stopped at some point, even when they were still dating. And he’s been an asshole ever since the gap year.

Bonnie pulls back and looks at Kim. “You’re Kim Possible dammit. You can do anything.”

* * *

When Kim does finally leave Bonnie’s, she regretfully turns her phone back on to a wave of text messages from people. Some from Ron, yeah, but mostly Wade and Erica. Kim kinda feels bad, she should’ve told those two that she was okay after the mission. 

As per usual, she deletes Ron’s messages without reading them. It’s starting to feel like harassment, she might need to block him. Then she looks to Wade’s texts. 

_Are u ok? Heard the diamond is secure._

Kim sighs and types up an entire essay on what just happened with her and Shego, then deletes almost all of it. She really needs to talk to someone, but she doesn’t want to call. So she texts:

_You got time next week? Would love to catch up. I can’t leave town tho._

Then she turns to Erica. Erica’s texts are mostly rapid concerns for Kim’s safety. Now Kim feels really rotten. At least Wade knew she was okay.

_Yeah, I’m okay. Sry. Felt really bad afterwards. U home?_

Her stop on the train is coming up. Whether or not Erica is home, she’ll find out soon enough. 

_Beep beep de-beep!_

God, she’s gotta change her text tone. It’s just… childish. It makes her skin crawl, and it always turns eyes. Everybody knows the Kim Possible ringtone, but at least they don’t recognize she’s the girl it’s actually associated with.

It’s a text from Wade.

_Wed at 2, Ill be there. This boy wants wendy’s. U know a place?_

Kim rolls her eyes.

_Try coffee. We’re adults wade._

_Oooh look at you, ms. legal age of drinking_ , Wade texts back immediately. _I want junk food baby. Compromise. Denny’s?_

Kim gets so distracted by Wade’s charm that she almost misses her stop. She clumsily exits the Metro while texting back.

_Yeah, cya_

* * *

Erica’s taking a shower when Kim gets home. Someone’s _always_ taking a shower in their apartment, with only one of them and eight girls to use it. Kim’s considered asking if she could shower with one of the other girls sometime, but because she’s so… uh, charged and ready to go all the time, she doesn’t trust herself to play nice in there. 

The other girls are spread out all over the place, chilling with their laptops, some of them doing homework. Lazy Sunday for sure. 

Kim slips into her room unnoticed and checks herself out for some time, pinching her body and checking for the tiny folds of fat. She didn’t lose _that_ much muscle, it kinda feels like Shego was just being really judgmental. Still though, she does own a fair amount of work out clothes she only uses for lounging. If she really wanted she could just go out for a run… or two. 

But she doesn’t want to do that just to impress Shego. That feels gross. Kim should do it for Kim. She knows that, but still… she could seriously just go for a run right now and _feel it_. 

Erica slips into their room, shutting the door behind her. She’s still a little wet, and just wrapped up in her towel. “Oh, you’re back! How was it?”

Kim looks her over and blushes. God, she just had some of the best sex of her life last night and already she’s hungry for more, and she’s positive Erica wouldn’t say no. “You are so hot,” Kim leads in with.

Erica pauses. “Thanks.” She drops the towel and bends over her bed to pick up her clothing. 

Ooh, that’s it. Kim feels her lips wet. 

_I. Am So. Gross._

“Um, mission was fine,” Kim stumbles, turning away, stripping herself. She’s going to let Erica decide on this one. She takes it all off and looks for her workout clothing. “She was kind of a bitch, didn’t work out. But um…”

Erica takes Kim by the waist. There it is. Kim straightens up into her chest and leans back, looking into Erica’s eyes. Erica’s hand very gently crawls over Kim’s hip and onto her crotch, tapping it without actually going in. 

“She like the makeup?” Erica asks.

“Yeah,” Kim says faintly. “But she left.”

“Girl left me too last night,” Erica whispers, nibbling Kim’s neck. “I’m kinda frustrated about it.”

“Yeah,” Kim echoes, guiding Erica’s hand to her breast. “Can’t the others hear us?”

“Not if we’re quiet,” Erica jams her fingers in. Damn, she’s cruel. “Now that I have you, I need to ask you something.” Erica walks Kim over onto the bed, dumping her on and climbing on top. “Where did you sleep last night?”

Kim narrows her eyes. “ _You_ have an ulterior motive.”

“I’m horny and obviously you are,” Erica coos. “C’mon. I’ll finish you if you tell me, otherwise I might just take this nice and slow… and I don’t know, maybe you’ll get a little loud and—”

“I slept with someone else last night, not the first girl,” Kim hisses, eying the door. She feels so gross going for two today, and feeling the second one just like the first. She’s still hungry even after the best sex of her life. “Do it, finish me. Please.”

Erica does so and Kim relaxes, before diving back in to return the favor. “Booty call?”

“Friend with benefits yeah,” Kim mutters, being careful to be courteous and not make Erica scream.

“What about the thief girl?” Erica asks. “You just giving up on that?”

Kim looks up, still working away at Erica. “I guess. Why?”

“I mean, if you’re _this_ hot right now, Kim… I don’t know…” Erica shrugs. “Up to you, I think you should pursue—oof, you got it, thank you. I’m good.”

Kim pulls back and looks at Erica carefully. Her body is still vibrating with energy. The sex held it off but already it’s coming back in. She is still unbelievably hungry and amped up. Because it’s not _her_ . Because _she_ rejected Kim, on account of being out of shape. Well, fuck it. She can win her strength back. 

Kim frowns and pulls out her workout clothes. 

“I need to go for a run,” Kim says hastily.

Erica cocks her head to the side, “Good.”

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading as always. Next chapter we’ll dig into the plot that will move the rest of the story along. : )
> 
> You can [follow me on Twitter](https://twitter.com/IAmLordMeatwad) for tweets about my cats and fanfic, and [follow me on Insta](https://www.instagram.com/katrinajagelski/) for similar stuff. Occasionally I do live reads for my original fiction and fanfic.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kim meets up with Wade and learns that her meeting with Shego was purely coincidental, and it's highly unlikely Kim will ever able to see her again... unless Kim can concoct a way to lure Shego back in.

Wade’s so happy, there is just this glow in his eyes that Kim is drawn to. She is infact a miserable bitch, and sees sadness wherever she goes. But Wade is just skipping through a field of flowers. Kim honestly just lets him talk and talk and talk because it makes her feel better about things, knowing that at least one person from her old life is making it through okay.

He does this all while enthusiastically eating his burger and drinking his soda, while Kim just has a black coffee. She sneaks a sandwich in to eat since she’s kinda poor and can’t waste money.

“Yeah, so these new kids, Sean and Sadie, they’re super chill,” Wade almost knocks his whole soda over. “Really brings me back to the old days with you and Ron.”

Kim fakes a smile. “Yeah.”

It’s cool that Wade is working with new teen heroes now, unlike Kim he just  _ loves _ the work. Granted, if Kim started when she was ten years old she could see herself being in the same spot as Wade at seventeen. But Kim also knows why Wade brought the new kids up.

“Speaking of which…” Wade says.

“You want to know about Ron,” Kim affirms. “We broke up.”

“No shit, really?” he asks, swinging the straw into his mouth. Clearly, the boy is expecting a story.

“Yeah, it just… stopped working pretty early in. I really tried, but it was kinda like me and Bonnie, we just didn’t click.”

Wade furrows his brow. “You and Bonnie… oh man, that was before Ron, huh? A lot of things are starting to make sense now…”

She cringes. “Don’t think too hard about it. Heh. But yeah, it was a few weeks ago. I called him to tell him, and uh… yeah, he texts me a lot still, it’s um… let’s just say I’ve had to stop reading them. They’re a bit much.”

It’s really hard to speak so softly about Ron when her feelings are far more intense, but she would prefer to keep her problems between the two of them.

Wade sits there, and there’s a blatant discomfort now. 

It takes Kim a moment to process that. “He didn’t… tell you something else, did he?”

Wade gets a little sheepish. “Uh, well…”

“Wade…”

“We game together a lot, lots of voice chat and uh, I knew you two weren’t flying so fine but he kinda… um, makes it sound like you are still together?”

Kim blinks a few times and leans back. “He would.” 

She really wants it to be like, Ron is straight lying because he thinks Kim oughta break the news and not him, but she also knows that he is  _ convinced _ he can win her back through sending her obnoxious text messages, and maybe he actually  _ does _ see them as still as a couple. It wouldn’t shock her. 

“Do your parents know?” Wade asks.

“No,” Kim sighs. “I don’t… want to keep talking about this. I’m sorry.” 

Wade stares and then drops the subject. “So how was seeing Shego?” He loudly slurps his soda.

“She was kind of a bitch, not gonna lie,” Kim groans. “I only ‘won’ because she said I wasn’t worth fighting. So… sort of disappointing. I did want to ask though…”

“You want to see her again?” Wade smirks, dropping a manilla folder on the table. “Classified obviously, I didn’t give these to you.”

Kim carefully slides them onto her lap. She did not expect that at all. “Th-thanks. Uh. I don’t know what to say.”

“I don’t think it’ll do you much good,” Wade shrugs. “Shego’s kind of… target right now. After she had that huge falling out with Drakken a few years back, she’s been totally off the radar. Most of the time she’s MIA, and honestly, you just got lucky the day you asked me for a mission. I was actually gonna phone Sadie and Sean in but since you were so ready to… yeah.”

Kim sighs, noticeably disappointed. She’s fine with Wade knowing her, uh, interest in Shego.

“Point being,” Wade says. “You’re only ever going to find Shego through doing a ton of missions and maybe bumping into her.”

“Damn,” Kim mutters. “I really don’t want to do missions. I’m… pretty burnt out.”

“I can tell.”

Kim doesn’t know how to take that. “I just… feel like she’d understand where I’m coming from. We’re the same age and like… we’ve both been through the ringer with all these missions. We both started so young, and fell out with people we loved. I just want to talk to someone.”

Wade frowns. 

“No offense, Wade, it’s just like… field is way different from what you do,” Kim corrects. “Like, Ron was… there, it just never felt like he processed anything. He’s just _ fine _ and I’m the one who has to be on antidepressants and shit to be remotely stable and even then… I’m sorry I’m telling you all this. I miss you, Wade.”

Wade offers a sad smile. It feels like he’d hug her if there weren’t a table between them.

“Well, if you don’t want to do missions, I don’t think you’ll bump into Shego too much honestly,” Wade says. “You kind of have a tendency to be a little stubborn about things… like you always be doublin’ down on shit. Like ending Team Possible, moving to New York City, and it’s fine. Honestly, even the files I got for you are pretty nondescript. I had Will Du look through them and he couldn’t come up with anything.”

Kim frowns. “So why are you giving it to me?”

Wade shrugs, sliding his soda away, opening his body up to Kim. “Like I said, you’re stubborn. I know you’re dying to figure this one out. I just… take it easy, you know? I wouldn’t want to see you get stubborn about Shego when it doesn’t even seem like she likes you that much.”

Ouch. Well that feels like a blow to Kim’s ego. She knows he says it from a loving place but… ouch.

“You’re probably right.”

* * *

But Kim still spends her entire night shirking her studies to plow through this folder. It gets a little frustrating after a while, because like, well… Kim was always the ‘detective’ of Team Possible. Wade and Will Du are both very literal guys and it’s pretty blatant to Kim what dots they aren’t connecting here.

Kim asks Erica if she can have the room for the night, and push-pins the files and clippings from the folder into her plaster walls, winding thread and yarn from document to document. It’s all there, and it’s seriously not that complicated.

Fucking amateurs. How did Wade and Will not see this?

Shego steals artifacts and diamonds and shit for the Bermuda Triangle exclusively. Everything else is random merc work across the planet. But it’s all jumbled, and nothing connects the merc work to the Triangle, only the museum theft. 

Which makes Kim think that Shego is a free agent who just kinda floats wherever she wants, and just  _ happens _ to have a great connection with the Bermuda Triangle who definitely gives her a huge payout. Meaning the Bermuda Triangle is just focused on generating as much money as possible. That checks out, Shego was always a little bougie.

Kim gets that these missions are freaking badass too. Like high profile heists and assassinations, elaborate traps, and legions of goons to conk out. It’s kind of thrilling, being in the swing of it. It gives Kim flashbacks, and not the sad ones. 

She remembers swimming through lakes loaded with laser matrixes. She remembers defusing death rays at the last second, caked in sweat. She remembers holding onto a giant cake mixer and spinning along with its blades to the rhythm she felt in her heart.

She remembers matching blows with Shego, and depending so much on instinct. She never got to think, she just had to  _ move _ and it was… thrilling. It makes her heart race and she gets nostalgic. 

She wonders if she can figure out even more from what she’s got, and maybe get Wade to compensate her for cracking the Shego case. Fuck, maybe Kim could even replace Will Du and be like, some kind of consultant for the new… team but God. 

She can already imagine what people would say.

Kim didn’t quit missions because she was sick of them, she quit missions because she needed to get away from Ron.

Online classes weren’t to get away from the public eye, and New York City wasn’t to sink into a crowd.

It was all just to get away from Ron, who was holding her back. That’s why it took her three years to work up the nerve to tell him the truth, and now she’s just left with the shattered pieces. And it feels bad to take it all back now. 

Everyone should hate her, because she kinda hates herself.

She throws her marker in the air. It spins and she catches it. 

And she looks back at the papers. This is way too easy. She’s missing something so  _ obvious _ . She gets back to work, thinking. Shego’s crimes are so cleanly divided — that feels intentional. Like, it’s as if someone doesn’t want anyone to know that they are actually connected. Like it is _ just  _ the Bermuda Triangle, which isn’t a profit machine, it’s killing people and using these elaborate heists to get funding. 

Or maybe… Kim’s heard about it, just rumors — but Big Daddy Brotherson isn’t actually the head of the Bermuda Triangle, the Big “Big” Daddy is. No one knows who that is though.

But they gotta be new, because all the evidence and files are pretty recent. It wasn’t like this when she was a world renown teen hero. Something changed, someone else is in charge. And it’s got to be someone powerful. Kim bets she knows them, because she knows practically everyone.

What if there’s like… a power struggle or something? Kim can see that. It’s the genre of these people, they do that sort of thing. 

Okay, so she’s got straight up murders and she’s got theft. The murders are mostly scientists upon further examination. It’s unclear what they were working on though, so it’s impossible to report if there’s theft because no one but the scientist would know what could be stolen. So these cases are strictly seen as murders.

But it has to go deeper than that. It’s anti-intellectualism to the highest degree, like… why scientists? That’s so oddly specific.

Death by plasma. 

Kim paces in circles, thinking so hard it hurts her head. 

Kim flips the marker up and down. Up and down. What if… Shego is stealing things, just no one knows what to look for? What if she  _ is _ working for Drakken? These kinda crimes do fit his M.O. And the Bermuda Triangle is… maybe it’s like — Drakken _ is _ Big “Big” Daddy and Shego… doesn’t know? Because they had a huge falling out, why would Shego work for him again under a different alias?

“Kim?” Erica’s voice breaks Kim’s train of thought. “Yo, um, it’s 2am and I’m having a hard time sleep—yo, what the fuck is all this?”

Kim blinks and looks around. Woops, she kinda took over Erica’s side of the room. “Sorry, I, uh…”

Erica is just kind of in awe. “Are you  _ back _ , Kim?”

“Maybe,” she blushes. “Sorry, wow, it’s 2? Shit, um, I need to call someone before I go to bed. Sorry about that. The room is yours.”

Kim strolls outside and shuts the door behind her, watching the crack of light immediately go out. Her mind is racing so fast. She keeps pacing and slips out into the hall, pulling out her Kimmunicator. It’s like,  _ really _ late. Feels bad to hit him up but…

“Wade?”

Wade’s face lights up immediately. “ _ Yo, Kim! Long time no talk, haha. You won’t believe who Sadie and Sean are fighting right now! Duff Killi— _ ”

“I think I got a breakthrough for you—” Kim says quickly. “—wait, Duff?  _ Still _ ? He’s like… my worst villain. So boring.”

“ _ So boring _ !” Wade chimes. “ _ What do you got for me? _ ”

Kim tells him her whole theory, from start to finish. She can tell Wade is already regretting giving her the confidential files, but after some time he starts to nod along, buying into it. 

“ _ But then what? _ ” Wade asks. “ _ Like… what do you want to do with all this? _ ”

Kim thinks. She could just stop it here and convince Wade to hire her. But no, she wants more. She wants the whole thing. She can’t keep denying herself things.

“I need to talk to Shego, I don’t think she knows,” Kim explains. “Tell me about the diamond. Is it still there?”

“ _ Yeah… but why _ —”

“See, I can’t find Shego. That’s what you’re telling me, but I know she can find me. We just need a lure. I bet, because Shego didn’t take it,” Kim says. “She’s probably in trouble for not stealing it.  _ So.  _ What if  _ I _ steal the diamond? Shego won’t be able to help herself, she’ll have to look for it and find me.”

Wade is kinda slack jawed. It takes a second for him to snap back in. “ _ Yo. Kim, that’s dangerous and super risky. _ ”

“No it’s not!” she says with so much pep. “I broke in once, without your help and… yeah, this makes sense. This is good. C’mon, Wade.”

Wade bites his lip. “ _ It’s a super unorthodox way to solve a mystery, and definitely an even worse way to ask someone out on a date…” _

Kim cringes; she hates how transparent she is. __

_ “But uh, shit, Kim. It’s hard to say no to you. _ ”

She’s beaming now. She hasn’t felt this excited in such a long time. 

“Alright then,” she grins. “Let’s go steal a priceless diamond.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :)
> 
> You can [follow me on Twitter](https://twitter.com/IAmLordMeatwad) for tweets about my cats and fanfic, and [follow me on Insta](https://www.instagram.com/katrinajagelski/) for similar stuff. Occasionally I do live reads for my original fiction and fanfic.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time for a heist scene!

Kim knows her day is going to suck when it starts with a text from Wade saying:

_We’ve got a problem. Wendy’s. ASAP._

She wants to object to meeting him at Wendy’s specifically, but like, the boy is obviously in crisis. He doesn’t get stressed too easy after all.

Kim groans, skips class, and meets Wade at Wendy’s where he’s drowning himself into what will soon become a food coma. It’s hard to watch. Food’s good, just, uh, y’know, pace yourself.

“Security’s tightened up since Shego hit the place,” Wade says, taking out his laptop. “By a lot.”

“Why?” Kim blinks stupidly.

“Because of the scorch marks Shego left on the floor, now they know the diamond is wanted by some pretty high profile thieves so… they hired a guy to take care of it. And his system is pretty airtight. So right off the bat — this isn’t an ordinary diamond but let’s not worry about that just yet.”

Wow, okay, that’s a lot of information to take in. 

Kim sighs and asks, “So who is it?”

“Professor Dementor,” Wade says the name like he’s a kid talking about his favorite comic book villain, and pulls out his laptop.. 

“He went corporate?”

“Yeah, corporate security, dude,” Wade taps his screen and it shows a 3D blueprint of the museum space with the diamond. Large and cube shaped, high ceilings under a skylight. “Guy is nocturnal now. What’s happening is every night, when the museum closes, Dementor punches in and stands guard. That is pretty simple.”

Kim winces, anticipating the blow.

“He himself? No problem,” Wade waves it off, hitting a few keys. “But his heart rate is synced up to the security system. If anything fluctuates in him, it turns on.”

Red lasers appear in a massive interlocking matrix all around the room, like a scary jungle gym. 

“That’s not too bad,” Kim smirks. “I’ve done this before. It was my first mission!”

“Nuhuhuh,” Wade wags his finger, pressing another key. “They move.”

And so they do. The lasers pivot around the room slowly, gaps opening and closing rapidly. Kim tries to imagine herself at the bottom of the 3D model, working her way through. But each time, regardless of the gymnastics she knows she’s not physically capable of just yet, she gets zapped. 

“Can we turn it off?” Kim asks slowly.

Wade smiles back. “I think I can hack it a little but. It’ll be a small change. My idea is to lure Dementor out of that room. It’ll turn on the second he’s out, but when he’s out of range, I can make it turn off — _if_ his heart rate is steady. _That_ is the question. How do we do that?” He lets it hang in the air. “I don’t think we can.”

So much for an easy mission. Might not be worth it, when it’s really just a gamble to lure in Shego. But fuck, she’s Kim Possible. She loves a challenge.

Kim bites her lip, and starts thinking. “Do you know the details of Dementor’s deal with them?”

“He’s _only_ protecting the diamond.”

“Okay,” she folds her arms together. “So he’s not going to care about anything else… if we raise a ruckus nearby to make it seem like we’re stealing, I don’t know, a painting, he probably won’t care.”

Wade stays very still, other than shifting his arm to sip his soda. But it looks like he’s hiding something. 

Kim narrows her eyes. “Spill.”

“Okay,” he gasps dramatically. “What we _could_ do is distract him with something he likes… for a long time. With some kind of _conversation_ to keep him entertained.”

Oh, she sees where this is going. 

“That would effectively make this a two man operation,” Wade says.

“Can I have one of your kids?” Kim says flatly. “Sadie and uh, Sean?”

“No way,” Wade shakes his head. “They stay out of this. This is illegal, Kim, and if you get caught… I’m counting on you not to loop me in.”

She furrows her brow. “Well I’m not down to bring Ron back in. It’s not… safe, to work with him anymore.”

“It’s gotta be Ron, Kim. It needs to be someone who… ya know, can be trusted. This is a big deal—”

“No,” she cuts him off. “No no _no_ . It… has to be a one person operation. We need to distract Dementor… while I work my way through the room. Can _anything else_ set off the lasers other than the heart rate after you hack it?”

“Temperature of the room, and also sound,” Wade nods. “Any alterations and _zap!_ Pretty standard.”

“Okay, so…” she starts drawing it out in her notepad. “I have to move quietly, which also means slowly too.” She thinks. It’s been so long since she’s had to do anything like this, it’s wild. 

“Can _my_ heartrate set it off?” she asks.

“No.”

“Good.”

She sits there, just thinking for so long. “I have an idea, but I need some stuff for it to work. What kind of access do you have to the sort of gear I used to use?”

Wade smiles from ear to ear. “There she is.”

* * *

Kim sweats as she walks through the museum, pretending to be an ordinary visitor. But she’s here with an ulterior motive. 

For a few hours, she was thinking it might actually be easier to steal the diamond in broad daylight, seeing how the security is blatantly loosey goosey at this hour. But she sees the folly in it now that she’s here. It’s packed. Maybe easier to steal the diamond, but nigh impossible to keep a low profile.

Still, the prep work is not fun. It’s just two pieces to plant but doing it is still a little scary. Lots of variables. Someone could find what she leaves, someone could catch her planting and bust the whole operation.

First plant is a projector machine. It’s cloaked, all she needs to do is pick a room for it that is:  
  
A.) Close enough to the diamond that audio emitting from there could plausibly be heard by Dementor.  
  
and  
  
B.) Far enough way that it’ll take Dementor some time to run back to the diamond room.  
  
Kim pauses in the diamond room just to take it all in. The room is huge and cube shaped, the only piece in here being the diamond. The massive, shining diamond. The way it catches the sunlight from the skylight is truly stunning, it bounces the light in so many directions and just wow. Kim could look at the diamond for hours.

It also looks fucking heavy. It’s bigger than her head. 

Hard to think in a few hours, it will be gone.

She plants the projection device in an Ancient Egypt exhibit, concealing it behind some pedestal, hooking it underneath the lip of the stone. That’s piece one. 

Next thing she can plant tonight — a simple bomb on the roof, positioned directly above the diamond. The skylight closes up once the sun goes down, with metal sheets blocking off the easiest getaway. The skylight is how she got in last time, and now the museum team is aware that it’s a weakness in security, despite making the exhibit all the more dazzling.

Now she’s breaking in through some employee entrance. She doesn’t really get it, but she trusts that the plastic card Wade is making for her today will work.

* * *

“How much data do you have on-hand for Doctor Drakken?” Kim asks. “We need _a lot_ for this to work.”

Wade leers at her. “What kind of data?”

“I need speech patterns and movements.”

“Hm… I think I have enough to build what I think you’re conceptualizing.”

“Great,” Kim snaps her fingers, thinking. “Now… bare with me, I need thought-to-speech software, and I’m talking faster than Stephen Hawkings. Can you get me that?”

“Done,” Wade starts taking notes finally. She was wondering when he’d start writing stuff down.

“Lastly,” Kim pokes her chin. “I can cover this, I think. I need to time how long it is going to take me to walk across the room at the pace I need to go at to not trigger the lasers, _and_ the time it will take to go back. Then I’ll write a script for a conversation that will drag on longer than that amount of time.”

Wade blinks, but nods. “Yeah. Sure. Sounds… good?”

“Trust me,” she grins. “It’ll work… now the only thing I’m worried about is my exit.”

“You leave the way you came in,” Wade shrugs. “Easy.”

“No, not easy,” Kim wags her finger. “Something goes wrong, anything goes wrong really, I might not be able to do that. Let’s say I can’t get out of the room. I need a way out, and I’m thinking up. I can plant a bomb on the roof to kill the metal shields but…”

“Kim,” Wade leans in. “We can’t do Plan B. It needs to be Plan A.”

She narrows her eyes. “We need contingency if I get stuck, and I can’t do it unless I have a grapple that’s cable can hold up against the lasers. If it’s gonna snap, I’m fucked.”

Wade considers it. “Yeah, okay… I’ll do my best on that one. That’s gonna be hard… but…”

She smiles. This might actually work.

* * *

Kim waits outside of the diamond room, decked out in all black. Turtleneck, ski mask, sweatpants, everything except her eyes covered. Her backpack is slung around her shoulders, and her radio plugged in her ear, she’s ready to go. 

She just needs to start the goddamn plan. It’s so nerve wracking though. She’s quickly realizing she’s never done anything like this before. This is an _actual crime_ , and though her motives are innocuous, she could go to jail if things get FUBAR.

But — Kim is also a miserable bitch. What does she have to lose?

She mouths the words underneath her mask and they echo down the hallway towards the cloaked projection device. “ _Oooh, Demenz!_ ” It’s Drakken voice, a perfect match created from the many existing recordings of the mad doctor.

As planned, Professor Dementor steps outside of the diamond room and looks around curiously. Guy will always latch onto a Drakken thing.

He cheeks the laser grid that definitely just went up behind him, thin streaks of red light reflecting onto his clothing. He shrugs and follows the voice. 

“Go _,_ ” Kim whispers and the laser grid shimmers for a second. Wade now has control, but Dementor’s heart rate is still up. Probably anxious about Drakken to some extent. Damn.

That’s okay, Kim can still get through. She can wait a sec, then move double time with the padding she gave herself.

“Drew?” Dementor gasps. “Vhat—vhat are _you_ doing here?”

“ _I’m here to negotiate, Demenz. Now calm down so we can chat._ ”

Kim waits a very painful second and finally the laser grid dissipates. She slips in and moves across the floor, moving as gently as possible. Anything a hair too loud and that laser grid is going back up. 

“Okay…” Dementor pouts. “I’m interested, but…”

Kim tiptoes, wading through. This is so tense, needing to follow Dementor’s conversation to a T like this.

“ _This laser grid system you’ve built is immaculate. I can’t figure out how to crack it._ ”

“It _is_ pretty good, jah?”

Yes, Kim, just keep stroking his ego.

“ _Kim_ ,” Wade chirps into her ear. _“Dementor’s getting way too close to the projection. Stop him_.”

She pantomimes raising a silly looking gun at Dementor. 

“ _Good_ ,” Wade whispers.

But of course, instantaneously, what does happen is the laser grid turns on — she probably just scared the shit out of the dude. Great.

And fuck those lasers really do move fast.

Kim pivots around quickly, slipping through the ever shifting gaps, trying to keep her cool all while thinking, “ **_Don’t_ ** _move a muscle, Demenz. I’m not in the best place right now. Can’t be too careful._ ”

A laser surges towards her face. She does a quick check and there’s no way to go. She braces herself—

—and the laser fizzles out right before it gets to her.

“Haha,” Dementor chuckles. “Too true, Drew. So you’re interested in buying my security system?”

“ _I’m interested in buying_ **_you_ **.”

Kim is now halfway across the floor, still padding along. She’s sweating hard underneath the mask. That was really close, she easily could have just died over something so stupid; she has a feeling these lasers can slice through bone.

“You want to hire me into your… operation?” Dementor suggests.

“ _Yes, you do good work_ . _Loathe of me to admit it, my friend, but this plan is brillianter than anything I could ever concoct!_ ”

That’s definitely her best Drakken line all night. Brillianter. Keep on that energy, Kim.

“Hm,” Dementor says. “I don’t know… you would normally have me killed and steal the laser system, jah?”

Kim freezes. 

She was fucking right. That is exactly what is going on with the Bermuda Triangle. 

She almost pumps her fist in victory, but no. She can’t. Can’t freeze. Move fast.

“ _Well, nyergh, Demenz, you_ **_are_ ** _the security system as a package deal with the, uh, heart rate thing…_ ”

“Right, good, Drakken,” Dementor sounds so proud. “Just checking dat you understand vhat I’m capable of… and vhy my demands vill be so high. I accept your offer!”

Kim blinks. Shit, he wasn’t supposed to accept so early. She takes one long stride to the diamond. So close now.

“Tell me tho… vhy the blue skin?”

And there goes her script. “ _Well… funny that you ask… not funny ‘haha’ but… it was a Tuesday…_ ” Kim cringes, trying to think of fake story she could improv, probably some kind of lab accident. “ _I was working_ —”

“Stop,” Dementor says. “Seems like you forgot your own backstory to me. You’ve told me dis story before, remember vhen?”

Oh God. No no no.

“ _Was it… Las Vegas…?”_

“IT VAS LOVARDIA, AND YOU’RE A FAKE!” Dementor shrieks and Kim hears something bounce off the wall. She is positive Dementor just threw something at the projection and yep, the laser matrix is flaring back in. Dementor is screaming.

Kim flips ahead ahead and lands on top of the glass case to the diamond just as the lasers cage around her. Thankfully, they are far enough away that she’s safe just sitting here.

But yeah, no way she’s coming out the way she came in, Plan A exit is now FUBAR.

In quick succession, Kim triggers the bomb on the roof and slides her feet around the glass case, harshly plucking it off and dropping it to the floor. 

“INTRUDER!” Dementor shouts, nearly tripping over himself as he stops outside the grid. “YOU VILL NEVER ESCAPE MY BRILLIANT LASER GRID!”

Kim gives Dementor a quick glance and then looks back up at the skylight. She readies her grapple line and fires and thank God it catches and the lasers don’t cut it in two. Wade pulled through. But still, looking up, there’s just no way she can get up there alive. The lasers all blur together and make a solid block of death she’d have to pass through. 

Kim thinks fast and grabs the diamond, lifting it over her head. It’s top heavy, very slanted to a sharp point at the bottom. Which gives her an idea she prays works. She raises it up into the lasers above her head and they catch on the diamond, bouncing off at a clean 90° — which is safe to not hit Kim since she’s a solid 150° out — the beams reflect around the room and trigger a wave of mini-explosions, killing the mechanisms igniting some of the beams.

When it’s done and Kim can no longer reach any more lasers to intercept, she slips the diamond into her backpack and wow, that weighs on her. She nearly falls off the pedestal but catches herself with the thankfully taut grapple line. She sees Dementor loading his pistol out of the corner of her eye, and she’s a goddamn easy target standing still like this.

Kim looks up at the skylight and waits patiently, watching the lasers continue to cross. The patterns are less congested now, but still bad. With the sequences being so random, it’s impossible to tell when is the right moment to power through. If she had more time, and no Dementor to worry about, she could do this. She could let Wade run an algorithm that tells her when to go but all she has is her instinct. 

Plus she has two seconds before she dies because of the gun, so it’s really now or never. She just needs to try it. 

Kim’s mind slows, she thinks of each motion as a fragment of the second. She visualizes a timeline filling up with gray. Her moment is coming soon. 

She sees it; it’s her gut check and she just _knows_. The cable pulls her off the pedestal and she surges through the air, narrowly avoiding a bullet. She flies up and keeps her eyes open for the ride, watching the red whizz past her face. The constant sharp buzz of each laser pierces her ear as she passes and…

…

…

…

...she makes it. She hits the shattered skylight and flips over the roof, crashing down into the tin with enough force to knock someone out. It’s just her adrenaline now. She takes a second, chest heaving.

“ _Holy shit_ ,” she hears Wade swear on her radio. It brings her back to reality. “ _HOLY SHIT!_ ”

“Yeah,” Kim gasps, breaking into laughter.

She heaves herself up, stuffing away the grapple gear, body buzzing with excitement. She starts her run down the tin roof and immediately trips, face planting and rolling several feet down. She catches herself and looks up, seeing that the bottoms of her boots peeled clean off from the lasers, and it’s then that she becomes conscious of the cold air hitting her socks, and she cackles at how ridiculous this is.

She pries off the boots and sprints down the slanted roof, leaps off the edge and grabs onto the secured line dangling off the side. She shimmies down, Wade pulls up in the unmarked white van, and they are out. 

Kim pulls off her mask immediately, kicking the dashboard and screaming with excitement. “WOO!” 

It’s the kind of woop that would even startle Howard Dean.

Wade is crying from all of his laughter. “Holy shit — _how_?!”

Kim kicks the dashboard. “I don’t even know, WHAT?! We — high five. C’mon, high five — YES!” 

* * *

Once they are absolutely certain no one is following them, they park and walk two miles to get to Wade’s hotel, trying to keep it lowkey as they walk down the street. But the moment they are in his room, Kim screams with glee. She just… she just hasn’t felt this good about something in _years_. 

And the first thing she does is crack open one of the beers she brought. And then another. And hands it to Wade.

It takes Kim way too long to process what she just did, and she flumps onto the bed, staring wide eyed at him. “Shit, sorry, I…”

“No, it’s cool, it’s just y’know,” Wade hands it back. “I’m seventeen and all…”

“Yeah,” Kim sighs. Honestly, if she wasn’t like, _Kim Possible_ , she probably would have drank in high school, but she knows it’s wrong to enable a kid like him. All of that good energy just fades fast, and now Kim _really_ wants to drink. She sets both bottles on the fridge and falls into the bed. “Shit. I have a problem.”

“With your love life?” Wade quips.

Kim throws a pillow at him, and rolls onto her elbow. “No, with drinking. I’m an alcoholic, Wade. I drink when I’m really sad, and I drink when I’m really happy too. And drink when I feel nothing to give me something to have. I just… drink a lot.”

Wade holds his expression.

“Sorry, that’s kinda heavy,” she shrugs. “I won’t… I’m going to pour these out, I don’t trust myself right now.”

“Damn, Kim you… you got so much willpower.”

“Thanks, it’s what I’m known for,” she scoops up the beers and checks into the bathroom. “So… what do we do now?” 

She’s still thinking about the beer, even when she tosses the glass bottles into the trash. 

“Lay low,” Wade says. “I mean, you’re thinking Shego will just come to you, right?”

“Yeah, I think she will,” Kim shrugs. “I guess I just wait and let you know what happens… fuck, Wade. I killed the energy, I’m sorry.”

“No, no, it’s cool, Kim,” Wade frowns. “You’re way too hard on yourself. You def got a lot of interior conflict in you.”

She rolls her eyes and sits besides him. “Well, I’m kinda wired. I don’t think I’m going to sleep anytime soon.”

“Same,” he sighs. “I guess I could check in with Sadie and Sean…”

“It’s kinda late,” she says.

He just kinda gives her a look. “Dude, you’re so East Coast now. Everyone on the east coast thinks it’s the only timezone. Sadie and Sean are in Japan.”

“Oh, yeah,” Kim sighs. “If they’re ever down here, I could always train them or something.”

“Yeah, that’d be chill. Um. Honestly, Kim?” Wade gives her a serious look. “At this hour, I’m usually gaming with Ron. But I’m down to game with you if you’re willing to learn.”

Kim considers it. It kinda makes her uncomfortable that Wade is still friends with Ron. She doesn’t think he should be. Ron is… not… a good...

...but Wade likes Ron and she doesn't want him to get involved in her drama, so Kim stuffs it away and fakes a smile. “Teach me!”

* * *

Days go by and nothing happens. It’s not even in the news that the museum was robbed, they’re probably trying to be lowkey about it because it’s definitely an embarrassing look for them.

Though they do swap out the diamond with a different exhibit. Wild that this priceless object is just chilling out under her twin sized bed in an overpriced, tiny ass apartment in New York, doing nothing.

After a while, Kim starts to think that she failed. That her plan didn’t work, and that Shego won’t come for her. But maybe some random thief will. Or Dementor or something. Kim would just give it to them honestly. It’s not worth protecting, it’s only good to her as bait.

She considers tossing the diamond into the Hudson. Or digging it into the soil of Central Park. 

But damn, whoever is caught with this thing is straight up going to jail. Even just taking it out from under her bed to look at it feels like a massive risk. Right now, no one knows it’s her, no one’s searching for her, she’s good. 

Just wait, Kim.

Then finally, one night, it happens. 

Kim is lounging in bed, cozied up in her pajamas when she hears a knuckle rap against her window.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can [follow me on Twitter](https://twitter.com/IAmLordMeatwad) for tweets about my cats and fanfic, and [follow me on Insta](https://www.instagram.com/katrinajagelski/) for similar stuff. Occasionally I do live reads for my original fiction and fanfic.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kim's scheme works.

Kim looks up from her bed and sees who else but Shego waiting outside in the cold night air, dangling so many stories above New York City.

Kim gets up, ignoring Erica’s screams and opens the window for Shego, casually letting her in. Shego drops in, and eyes Erica with disdain. “You. Out! Tell no one.”

Kim looks to Erica, correcting this dumb shit immediately. “Shego, don’t be such a bitch to my friend. It’s fine Erica, don’t worry..”

“O-okay,” Erica shakes, stepping out and slamming the door behind her.

Kim looks to Shego with such a coy smile. “So…”

“Don’t be cocky, it’s a shit look on you,” Shego pats Kim on the head like she’s messing around with a cat. “These are your digs, huh? Poor New York kid, never expected that from Miss Priss…” 

Shego’s eyes fall on the Shego files Kim still hasn’t pinned up on the walls. She follows the trail, taking in the information relatively quickly “Whoa… _someone_ really wanted to see me.”

Kim blushes hard. “Well…” She knew she should have taken those down.

Shego waves her off. “You’re working again, huh? That’s chill, guess I _reinvigorated_ something in you.”

Kim sighs. It feels like Shego’s just here to kick her teeth in. Not what she wanted out of this.

Shego begins leafing through Kim’s belongings. Kim doesn’t mind honestly, it gives her a second to ogle the woman. She’s dolled up in this super sexy looking suit. Her blazer’s open, so her tie flaps out over the dark green blazer. Kim bites her lip.

Next, Shego opens up Kim’s closet, digging in hard.

“Shego, the thing you’re looking for, it’s—” Kim bites her lip. This isn’t going how she planned at all. She wanted to talk before giving her the diamond. “—not in there.”

“I know,” Shego says absently, and comes out of the closet holding one of Kim’s most risque numbers. A black lace crop top with ¾ sleeves, and a high-waisted black skirt to match. She waggles her eyebrows.

Kim smirks back. Maybe this is going _exactly_ as she planned.

* * *

“Yo, that’s wild!” Shego pounds the table, clinking the glasses. “That _worked?!_ ”

Kim blushes. She’s not used to so much praise; folks usually just take her for granted. “Yeah.”

They’re in a seedy kind of restaurant. The vibe is a little _oof_ and the food is expensive as Hell, but Shego’s footing the bill so it’s fine. It’s definitely one of the best meals Kim has had in a long time, she might even box it up. She forgot what it’s like to get so much food when you order out compared to making your own meals.

They’re drinking too. Just a little bit. Kim’s on her second round already, but she’s also a heavyweight which Shego definitely seems to be impressed by.

“But like,” Shego arcs her hand through the air, imitating flying. “You just zoomed through all that shit at the end?!”

“Honestly?” Kim smiles. “I… like… _freaked out_ when it was done. The whole time, I kept telling Wade like, _Wade,_ ” she scrunches up her face doing a poor imitation of herself when she’s serious-faced. “ _We need to have a Plan B! What if Dementor leaves early and I get trapped?_ And he was like, _noooo, Kim. Only Plan A_ , and what happened? WE USED PLAN B!”

Shego howls in laughter, spilling a little bit of her martini. “Holy shit… I can’t believe you pulled it off, I mean I was working that shit for— ”

“Excuse me,” a very familiar German man says from Kim’s left. She turns and sees Professor Dementor standing right there. “I heard my name.”

He flashes his canines at Kim.

Oh no.

“Um,” Kim stutters as Shego busts out into giggles. “I can — I can explain…”

Oh no no no…

“Dat was _you_?!” Dementor exclaims, pounding her on the back. “Holy shit, Possible, dat was good! I neda neda vould’ve expected — hmph. You are shocked.”

“Yeah,” she rasps. What reality is she in?

“See, I get de money no matter vhat, and now, I got a major security system credit to my name. People vill use it still, because it still pretty much vorks, so I’m all set,” he stands there a beat too long. “Have fun ladies, auf weidershein!” 

Kim looks to Shego, stunned, and the green lady busts out in laughter again. “You — _you_ — are _so_ bad at confrontation!”

Kim doesn’t think that’s very funny but she laughs anyways. Must be the alcohol.

“Wow,” Shego flicks a tear from her eye. “You know where we _are_ right?”

Kim frowns.

“ _The Bermuda Triangle_ , Kimmie,” Shego leans back. “Everyone here is a certified bad guy with a ™. It’s cool, chill.”

“Wait.” It’s hard for Kim’s brain to do its thing right now. “I’m… a criminal.”

“Yeah,” Shego smirks. “Damn! Girl… I feel so shitty now for insulting you the other day, like _wow_ . You have any idea how long I worked on my plan to break in and get the goddamn diamond? _Days_ , Princess. Straight days of figuring out how to hack the goddamned thing and get Dementor on gunpoint without him freaking.”

Kim raises her eyebrow. “If you’re so chummy here, why didn’t you just ask Dementor to just let you in?”

“Because here at the Bermuda Triangle, sweetcakes,” Shego grins, and she _knows_ Kim loves the nicknames. “We respect the hustle. You don’t hustle? You don’t get it. Ya feel me?”

“I feel you,” Kim nibbles on a french fry. “Wow. I… I’m really happy this worked out.”

Shego flashes a kind of dreamy expression right back at her and then eyes Kim’s drink. “Do you want more?”

“No,” Kim says softly and she suddenly gets up and comes around the table. The edge of her vision is kinda cloudy and she feels like she’s floating. There’s this intense warmth in her chest. “This is _perfect_ for me. I want to focus on you.”

Kim stole a diamond because she was pretty sure she hit a breakthrough on who Shego really works for, and she needed to tell her the truth out of good faith. But now… Kim just doesn’t care about it at all. Maybe she never did.

Kim bumps her hip against Shego’s and squeezes her deeper into the booth, picking at Shego’s plate while Shego just watches. Kim knows her face is flushed from all the drinking, and that awareness just makes it brighter. But damn, she feels _powerful_ , like she owns this moment.

She feels the muscles in Shego’s thick thigh relax and rest against hers; her flesh is so warm to rub against. 

“I wanted to see you,” Kim whispers.

Shego leans back, watching Kim with so much pride. They drift closer by the moment. “You got my attention.”

Kim’s lips part. This is what she wanted. She’s so hungry for her and…

“ _Ahem!_ ” Both heads twist around to see a balding man in his twenties, sharply dressed in a three piece suit. He extends his hand. “Forgive the intrusion, ladies. Hank Perkins, Big Time Villainy Consultant.”

“We’ve met,” Kim says dryly, taking his hand with a lot of hesitance.

“I know,” Hank smiles and gestures to the opposite end of the booth. “May I?”

No one gives him the go ahead but he takes a seat anyways, drumming his fingers against the table. “Victory night, out? Good choice, Miss Possible. We just wanted to say that Big Daddy forgives you for what took place earlier with Shego here.”

Kim furrows her brow, but figures she might as well play along. Probably some cover story Shego made to explain why she couldn’t retrieve the diamond. “Yeah, uh — that’s good!”

“Yes,” Hank folds his arms together. “Clearly, you’re very skilled, and it seems like you’re willing to play to our side. So, I won’t rush you, but consider it, okay? We’ve our eyes on you and would gladly take you in a moment.”

Kim gulps. “Uh — okay?”

“Good!” Hank gets up. “Now I must be — well if it isn’t Motor Ed! You son of a bitch, get over here!”

Kim whips her head back to Shego, who has now drawn her feet to her hips, knees up to her chin. 

“What was that about?” Kim stutters.

“Just an offer,” Shego offers. “You can take it or leave it. No one’s breaking your kneecaps if you say _no_ . But I dunno, I _would_ , ya know? It’s a nice gig. Way better than working with Drakken.”

Kim’s stomach drops. So Big “Big” Daddy _isn’t_ Drakken. Or at least Shego seems to think that. It definitely was a hair brained theory… but Kim’s gut checks are usually right.

But who would know Drakken more than Shego? Kim’s probably wrong. It’s fine. They’re here and Shego definitely seems interested.

Plus, Kim doesn’t really want to talk about it tonight anyways. “Gotcha,” she says slowly in a soft voice.

“You’re anxious, huh?” Shego kicks back. “That’s normal. I don’t think you thought this through. You stole a priceless diamond, all just to see _me_ and make goo goo eyes.”

Kim flushes. That is true. She didn’t think it through, and she’s kind of letting it get to her head. She really does want to talk to Shego about… stuff. But… she feels her body heating up, she feels those vibrations. She’s hungry just looking at her, and she knows Shego is emanating the same energy. 

It’s just like the old days — it’s electric when it’s the two of them. 

“Don’t worry about it, tonight, okay?” Shego pats Kim on the shoulder. “Take it easy. You need something else to drink?”

She really could use another drink, it would definitely help, but… instead Kim grabs Shego by the tie and pulls her in.

“No. I need you.”

* * *

It’s quiet for a long time. Shego gets them an expensive taxi and they just bask in each other’s presence until they get to the hotel. Like Wade, Shego travels a lot, but this hotel is… amazing. The sheer wealth it must take to afford this is… well, it makes Kim’s lip water. Because that could be her, right? If she says yes to whatever Hank is asking...

Kim looks at the king sized bed for a long time and then reaches for the lights, but Shego stops her. She grabs Kim’s wrist and gently guides it back to her side, and Shego takes a step back.

“Do you trust me?” Shego asks far more seriously than Kim is used to. 

Kim doesn’t really understand, but she does. She nods. 

“Okay,” Shego nods back. “I’m going to do some things and if you need me to stop, I will. Just tell me. Do you understand?”

Oh, Shego goes hard.

“I’m ready for you.”

Shego smiles and that’s the last complete sentence that’s said for the rest of the night.

Shego closes her eyes and focuses, and Kim starts to feel these little pinches all over her body. It’s like diving into a hot tub, her body gets this rushing sensation, and then suddenly it explodes all over her. Green plasma ignites from the pinpricks and immediately burns away all of Kim’s clothing. Her dress, her bra, her panties, the nylons, the shoes, the jewelry, everything gone. She is stripped completely bare with one fell swoop and falls to the floor flat footed. 

And it’s so fucking _hot_.

Shego moves in and straddles Kim over the bed, smashing her lips into Kim’s. Quickly, Kim slides against the sheets, pulling Shego back. She reaches for Shego’s belt but Shego grabs Kim’s wrist and guides it away. Shego keeps the full suit on, and stacks the pillows up to rest Kim against. They gaze into each other’s eyes while Shego slides two fingers into Kim, going very deep for the beginning. 

Her other hand hovers over Kim, searching for something, finds it, and lands. It’s a scar from the old days. Kim got careless and some dude ran a knife down her entire arm, and she nearly died of blood loss. Ron was there… if he wasn’t there she would have… don’t think about Ron.

Shego picks up some random object and hurls it at the light switch. Instant darkness, immediately thwarted by Shego’s left hand lighting up like a lantern. 

Kim feels the heat run against her arm, but it doesn’t burn. It’s just heat, sheer heat coagulating on this long running white line forever embedded into her skin. She sweats up a storm and feels a pinching along the scar and it’s soothing. 

Kim grabs Shego’s hand and pulls it outside of her, and guides it to a scar running along her right hip. This was a stabbing from the horrible gap year after Lowardia. She tries to think if she has any scars from battles with Shego but then the heat kicks up again.

It’s like being in a sauna. A steamless, 200° sauna, but the bed is so cold. It’s just Kim who feels the heat, and she sweats all over her body, and she hears herself moan. 

Hands twitching from everything coursing through her, she grabs Shego’s blouse which is surprisingly soft and undoes it. This time, Shego lets her. Kim opens it and sees the breasts right before her face, and scans Shego’s light green skin. Like Kim, it’s riddled with scars.

Kim keeps working, slowly slipping Shego’s clothing off, leaving the bra for now. She kisses Shego again, now undoing the belt buckle, her legs wrapping around the woman’s waist. Shego goes back to being inside Kim, the other hand playing the back of her neck like a piano. It’s just these rapid soft presses into her skin. 

Kim thinks she hears shoes hit the floor. 

Shego lurches forward and flips Kim so that she’s on top. Kim looks down at her, hair falling past her shoulder. She bows down and kisses Shego so hard, tongue going all in, while she undoes the bra and lets it fall. She keeps her body on top of Shego’s bare skin, it’s like a heated seat. 

She has known this girl since she was fifteen, and they grew up together as arch foes, and now… seven years later… Kim’s emotions are so strong for Shego. It’s impossible to deny it through the waves of pleasure.

Kim pulls away from Shego’s lips and bites down on her shoulder. Shego grunts and Kim second guesses it, turning to look at her expression. Did she hurt her? Shego gives a quick crooked smile and Kim continues, working her way up the shoulder to the neck and then to the earlobe. Finally, Shego’s moaning for _her_. 

Kim goes harder and harder. She wants Shego to feel as good as she feels right now, even though she doesn't have the kind of powers she does. She can’t just snap her fingers and make it sexy, she has to fight for it like everything else in her life. But she thinks she does a goddamn good job, considering. 

She gropes, she kisses, she dives, she goes hard, she goes soft. She tops hard, and when Shego switches, she knows it’s coming. 

Shego sticks her fingers inside Kim and lights up again. This time, Shego’s whole body goes green, bright as fire as it sparks within Kim. Kim screams, her loins spread and everything opens. She feels so tired, and so _amazing_. It’s hard to even move.

Kim sees Shego’s black lips curl through the flame and despite how incapacitated Kim is, she pounces on Shego, tumbling her into the bedsheets. Kim growls like a cat, playfully nibbling at Shego’s earlobe again. And Shego laughs right into Kim’s ear. It’s this joyous giggle free of sarcasm. It’s just Shego in her purest form. 

They make eye contact again, holding it for so long. Kim wants this to last forever. She kisses Shego this time, much more gentle, and rolls onto her side, folding her limbs around Shego’s, holding her tight. They cuddle for a long time, and they stay together. Kim sleeps well for the first time in weeks.

* * *

But when Kim wakes up the next morning, Shego is gone. 

And there’s a note.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ;)
> 
> You can [follow me on Twitter](https://twitter.com/IAmLordMeatwad) for tweets about my cats and fanfic, and [follow me on Insta](https://www.instagram.com/katrinajagelski/) for similar stuff. Occasionally I do live reads for my original fiction and fanfic.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kim reads Shego's note.

> _ “Turn on the TV.” _

That’s all the note says. Highly cryptic. Torn off the notepad and scribbled hastily.

Kim does so though, clutching the bed sheets to her chest, full of anxiety. If that was seriously just a one night stand, she might cry. Where the Hell did Shego go? That was one of the best nights of her life and… she turns on the TV. Focus up. 

Shego appears on the TV, looking directly at Kim’s spot on the bed.

“ _ Hey Princess, it’s me. Sorry to step out on you, don’t take it personally. I got called in to do a mission and well… you know how it is. I need you to listen to me closely. _ ”

Kim leans in, now mesmerized, heart racing. She thinks she knows what’s going on.

“ _ At 1400 hours _ —”

Yep. Game face on, Possible. This is it.

_ “ _ — _ Doctor Cyrus Bortel will be selling Moodulators to Global Justice. I think you know why the Cyclops would want them, Princess, and I’m happy you never joined them.  _

_ “Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to get Bortel to sell fake Moodulators instead of the real ones, and bring Bortel to us. I will be running backup field work, but we need someone to get inside GJ. _ ”

A sharp intake of breath. Break into Global Justice. This afternoon. Her. Holy shit. It’s real though, Shego wouldn’t prank her like this.

“ _ Again, I’m sorry. I didn’t expect this… Kim _ ,” Shego says with so much sincerity. “ _ It’s an emergency. Those Moodulators get to the wrong people and we have a problem. If you are in, press Fast Forward. If not, wait ten seconds and I’ll know you’re out. _ ”

Shego doesn’t say it but Kim can see it in her eyes, it’s this  _ Just trust me _ expression. Shego believes in this, and Kim doesn’t really believe in anything anymore. So she trusts. She hits Fast Forward. 

The recording cuts and now Shego is smirking. “ _ Good. Phase 1 is to call your pal, Nerdlinger, in exactly fifteen minutes. Not a moment sooner. Rest will be radio’d to you on the fly. Now… in terms of gear. _ ”

The floor besides Kim opens up and a metal closet rises up. Inside of it is the sexiest suit Kim has ever seen. Very similar to Shego’s, just with a blood red blouse in place of green. Long black tie. Perfectly cut and tailored to Kim’s body. Kim fingers the blazer and notes the silk lining on the inside. She gets up and stands tall. 

“ _ I blew all your clothes to Kingdom Come last night, Princess, _ ” Shego grins. “ _ Change. Make the call in fifteen. This message will self-destruct in 5 seconds. _ ”

Kim blinks. This is very cliche. Is Shego making a joke or is—

—the VCR to the old TV crackles and smoke pours out. Holy shit. Holy shit.

Kim sets an alarm to go off ten seconds before the fifteen minute mark, and tries on the suit. Like she imagined, it’s a perfect fit. Gazing into the mirror, it makes her feel very butch. Like — she looks like a spy. She finger guns herself. “Possible. Kim Possible.”

Cringey, but she’s resisted doing that for so many years. But what is she actually getting herself into?

Her alarm goes off and she calls Wade.

“Hey Wade,” she starts. “I just wanted to check in and update you on—”

“ _ Yo Kim! Perfect timing _ !” Wade cries out. 

“...it is?”

“ _ Yeah, see, you know how I just did you the wildest favor of a lifetime? Well, I got the payback. Are you available today? _ ”

“Yes,” she says softly. What did Shego  _ do _ ?

“ _ See, there’s a big exchange at Global Justice New York today and Will is uh… he’s just called in sick. He’s definitely vomming. _ ”

Aw Will… 

“ _ Betty knows Will’s been working with me and asked me to find a replacement and, well, can you do it? Can you be Betty’s bodyguard? _ ”

Kim stands still, processing everything, and wonders for a moment what the Hell Shego’s contingency plan was for if Kim said no.

“Yes, I’d love to Wade.”

Ten minutes later, a limousine pulls up in front of the hotel and brings her to Global Justice New York. It’s all really fast. Like a half hour ago, she was naked in bed and pining for this girl she’d like to fall in love with. Now she’s getting rapid fire security briefings spat at her, and within ten minutes of  _ that _ she’s standing across Doctor Betty Director after passing through the advanced scanning system at GJ. 

Global Justice is cloaked a sparkling white paint job, its halls labyrinthian. It’s incredibly intimidating. Ever since they stepped up during and after Lowardia, their funding has gone through the roof and now those underground offices have risen up… literally.

“Possible,” Betty crosses her arms. “I’ve had my eye on you for a long time. Consider this a test.”

Kim isn’t sure what to say to that. It sounds like someone else is testing her too. She follows alongside Betty, listening to her rant and rave about how well Global Justice is doing, like some kind of used car salesman. Clearly she’s desperate for a new agent hire. Kim thinks Betty’s a little needy and spaces out, focusing more on the walkie system with her earpiece. 

There’s a ton of different channels at Global Justice. Apparently if necessary, she can give orders to other agents on Channel 8 today. It’s all so weird and set-up in Kim’s favor, like Betty is in on the joke. 

“ _ Excuse yourself to the bathroom _ ,” Shego whispers darkly into her ear.

“Um, Dr. Director,” Kim bows her head. “I need one minute. Sorry.”

Betty raises an eyebrow until she notices the bathroom and nods. “At ease, Possible.”

“ _ Second stall from the left, lift up the top and _ —  _ make sure you are wearing gloves for this — take the gun on top of the lever. _ ”

Kim does exactly that and finds it. It’s a pretty old looking revolver. It can’t possibly be for her, it’s so out of date and inefficient. “That all?” she whispers, carefully lifting the firearm out with her leather glove.

“ _ Don’t speak. Low profile. You don’t know who’s listening. When you see Bortel, I need you to get the gun into his possession. _ ”

Oh. Like that will be easy. __

_ “Next, there’s a recorder in your right pocket. Make sure Bortel talks as much as possible, record everything he says. When you hit the office, click the square button. It’ll transfer the .WAV to me directly.” _

Kim nods along and flushes the toilet, stepping out to fake washing her hands by turning the faucet on.

“ _ Just be calm. I’m supporting you, sweetpea. _ ”

Kim trusts that. The recording thing is  _ whack _ but she’s just here to do as she’s told. Makes it easier. She doesn’t need to strategize, she just needs to move. Hopefully, her orders from Betty don’t conflict with anything Shego has for her.

At 1345 hours, Kim and Betty walk out to meet Bortel at the entrance. The whole thing is very sus. It does interest Kim that Betty  _ needs _ a bodyguard for this kind of thing. Bortel is harmless, though Betty might just be paranoid. Hard to say.

When Bortel does come in, his eyes light up at seeing  _ the _ Kim Possible, which earns an eye roll from her. Which gets Kim a scathing look from Betty. Bortel looks a little more refined than when she last saw him. His beard’s grown out to a sharp goatee, but his eyes are still beady and childish. He holds a little box of what Kim assumes are the Moodulators at his chest, as if he were carrying in a board game. 

Bortel chatters away about his dumb Moodulators and how they are  _ so _ much more refined than the last variation. It kinda makes Kim sad that he continued on that concept after learning how unethical they were. 

Damn, that was a long time ago too. Like what — five years ago? Six?

Kim does manage to slip the gun into Bortel’s fashionable lab coat pretty early in without anyone noticing. And she keeps him talking. That’s her job.

“So uh, you were a Fearless Ferret fan weren’t you?” she asks awkwardly when they’re out of conversation topics in the long ass walk to Betty’s office. 

“Oh yes, are you watching the new season of the reboot?” Bortel asks, delighted as she expected him to be.

“Uh, no.”

“No?! But wasn’t your boyfriend the Fearless Ferret for a while? I’m sure he would—” 

Should she tell him?

“—want to watch it with you, it’s so funny, last week they—”

Fuck it.

“Ron and I broke up,” she says flatly. 

Betty looks back and grins maliciously. “Good.”

Great. That feels _ super  _ cool to hear. Kim almost complains about how annoying it is to be congratulated for a breakup from a super toxic relationship but whatever. Kim does say something though that she probably shouldn’t.

“Yeah, I don’t even know if I ever loved him, romantically I mean,” Kim admits, looking at Bortel with piercing eyes. “I tried but the emotions your Moodulats created to link us were pretty disingenuous.” 

“Ah, you two have a history, I see,” Betty looks away. “I was wondering. You were Moodulated before, Possible?”

“Yes,” she doesn’t like being called by her surname. 

“Well,” Bortel twirls his goatee with such thespian flourish. “You can trust that the new version… has more lasting consequences.”

Ew. Kim almost says  _ Ew _ but holds it in, and stays silent until they reach the office. Kim slips a hand into her pocket and feels for the corners of the square button on the recorder, and presses down on it.

Inside the office, Betty takes a seat and folds one leg over the other. Kim hesitates and looks to Bortel. “Before we start… I’d like to frisk you once myself.”

“Why didn’t you do it earlier?” Bortel asks.

“Why are you asking me questions?” Kim keeps her face away from Betty so she can’t see the evil smirk. “Nervous?”

“Ugh,” Betty groans. “Possible, this is  _ not _ the way to impress me…”

Kim starts the search anyways.

Betty continues to ramble, “Our security systems to get in are airtight, there’s no way anyone could — what is that?”

Kim’s holding the gun. Shego never exlpained anything but it’s pretty obvious who it belongs to.

“Wait, that’s not…” Bortel reaches for the gun, speech slowing as he recognizes the model.

“Want me to run a fingerprint analysis?” Kim asks, looking over to Betty. 

“Um, well, it is  _ my _ gun, I swear I didn’t bring it…” Bortel sweats.

Kim smirks and takes command. “With your permission, Betty, I’d like to interrogate Bortel briefly. As an opportunity for me to demonstrate my skill set.”

“ _ Tell her she can listen in, _ ” Shego spits out.

“You can listen in of course, I just need the room.”

“ _ Good girl _ .”

Betty’s mouth folds into a sharp smirk. “I am so bored… why not?”

So Kim gets set up with Bortel in the staff lunchroom. Just the two of them, a wire connected to the table for Betty’s listening pleasure All the while, Kim is lowkey freaking out because how can she run the interrogation with Betty listening?

“ _ Amp down, Princess. You’re drawing attention to yourself,” _ Shego tells her once it’s safe. _ “We deepfaked your voice and his with your audio samples, and created a full conversation that will play out for Betty. It’s short, so move fast. At my word, you bring him back out. _ ”

Holy shit, this operation is… way tighter than anything Kim expected. 

Kim drops the gun on the table and picks up the box of Moodulators, sliding them into staff locker B12, the one she’s been instructed to use for the trade. She slips it in and grabs the box left inside the locker for her. If she stands up a little higher, she can sort of see white hands dragging the real Moodulators back from  _ behind _ the lockers.

“These are fake,” Kim says, dropping into her seat. “Same build as yours, but they will naturally short circuit and self destruct in a half hour. Do you understand?”

Bortel blinks, putting two and two together. “ _ You _ planted the gun on me.”

“I did,” she says flatly. “To get you  _ here _ . You are giving her the fakes, you do not say a damned thing and then you come with me.”

“B-but… if I give fakes, Betty will—”

Kim’s dark smile hurts her jaw, but it still feels good; she hates this man. “You want to die right now, Cyrus? I promise you, I can kill you and get away with it easy. You heard about the big diamond heist in New York, yes?”

“Y-yes… oh, you… Kim Possible, you’re a  _ criminal _ ?”

“No, I’m not,” Kim hisses and stands up. “But I doubt someone like  _ you _ could understand that.”

“ _ Holy fuck, Princess. That’s hot. Okay, you finished early. In ten seconds on my count, you open the door and smile. Eight, seven, six… _ ”

Kim stares daggers at Bortel and pushes her fingers into her mouth, making a wide ass smile like she’s trying to make a baby laugh. This is so  _ mean _ but God, she loves it. 

“ _ Five, four, three… _ ”

Gig is basically done at this point.

“ _ Two, one… _ ”

The door opens and Kim turns around immediately with a bright, glistening smile. “Just a simple misunderstanding!” 

“I heard. Come,” Betty flicks her head back towards her office, and Kim follows with Bortel snivelling behind her. 

“Now,” Betty rests both hands on her desk. “Before we proceed with  _ anything _ , Bortel please place a Moodulator on Possible’s neck right now.”

Kim blinks. That is  _ so _ not okay in her books, but to fill the part, to seal the deal… she just needs to do it. She silently bows her head down and lets Bortel latch it onto her neck, and suddenly she spaces out. It’s like taking a hit from a bong, everything just gets… fuzzy. Kim looks up blankly. Bortel and Betty’s voices batter her ears in a loud rumble and she has to take a seat. Then, she sees the controller change her emotions over to the one she wants to feel the least:

:(

Kim’s throat closes in, her heartbeat accelerates, and her eyes water. She looks up at Betty, suddenly feeling really submissive. She wants to ask her to stop but knows that she can’t. Betty smirks.

“Turn it up, Cyrus. I want to see the maximum.”

Kim’s watery eyes turn into floodgates. Her nose drizzles and spit gets caught between her lips. She falls into sobs, and then into straight bawling. She can’t control herself, she just starts crying so loudly, her spine slouching, her arms folding in. She feels like a confused little kid who can’t stop crying.

Kim remembers the man who drugged her, who squeezed her thigh and assaulted her back in that alleway. She remembers waking up every day miserable and alone for years and years. She remembers the breakup with Ron, and how empty she felt when she hung up the phone.

She remembers the first time Ron hit her. How much it stung, how betrayed she felt, how alone she was.

No, she doesn’t remember it, she relives it. Rapidly. She’s in so many places at once, crying in an office. Her mind swirls and then it swiftly ends. Everything returns to normal, except she’s hunched over in Betty’s chair, cheeks drenched in tears, rocking back and forth. She looks up stupidly, and pushes herself away from Betty immediately. “Oh. I guess…” She drags over a box of tissues and blows her nose. “...it works.”

Bortel makes an uncomfortable expression. “Yes. They work.”

Betty hooks her ankle around the leg to Kim’s chair and drags her in so that they are inches away from each other again. “Bortel, wait outside. Kim will escort you soon.”

Bortel bows back and leaves. Betty doesn’t look away from Kim not once. The gaze is simply piercing, and she feels fragile inside. Still reeling from that flood of emotions.

“ _ Best poker face, Kimmie, hang on, _ ” Shego coaches.

Kim tries. She really does. But all those memories are still buzzing about in her mind, and it’s a whole to not break down into tears once again. No machine should be able to do this to someone.

“Possible,” Betty says cooly. “Something’s wrong, and at the end of this conversation you will have an answer for me. First problem, that suit? Very expensive. I know your economic status, it’s odd you just have that  _ lying around _ for a job with me at a moment’s notice. Second problem, your interrogation didn’t make sense to me.”

“How so?” Kim tries her best to stay expressionless. 

“He was terrified of you from that point forward, but I didn’t hear you say anything too scary.”

“He’s a weasel.”

“Fine — last problem and most damning,” Betty’s nose almost touches Kim’s. “I frisked Bortel earlier when you weren’t looking. He hardly noticed, and I didn’t find that stupid gun you planted on him.”

There it is. This is where it falls apart.

“ _ Call her bluff. _ ”

“Impossible,” Kim mirrors Betty’s cold tone. “The entire walk in, my eyes were completely focused on your physicality and his. You never came close to frisking him, in fact, I was between the two of you the entire time.”

Betty’s grin gets so sharp and then she bows back, breaking into a warm smile. “Fuck, you’re good.”

Kim chuckles nervously. “What do you mean?”

Betty raises an eyebrow. “I do that with every newbie. See what they’re like under pressure. As for the suit? I have one just like it,” she winks. “Very cute on you. You’re dismissed. Escort him out.”

Kim nods and exits calmly, motioning for Bortel to follow her, the whole time feeling like she’s about to get shot in the head. Anxiety and joy and so much more bubbles in her chest but nothing can come out until she walks out and brings Bortel to his car.

“ _ Get in the backseat. _ ”

Bortel shakily gets into the driver’s seat and Kim gets into the back, finding herself next to Shego who has a gun pointed at the back of Bortel’s headrest. “Be chill, dude,” Shego says. “Kimmie, bend down. No one can see us. Bortel, you drive us through security and go home. “It’ll be fine, just be cool.”

And it does work out, because Bortel has to be fine for anything to go smoothly. They pull the rental car up to the hotel he’s been staying at, and load him up into the black town car waiting for them. He gets into the back, and Kim goes to the passenger seat. Protective glass seals Bortel away from them; Kim is guessing it’s soundproof too.

“Where are we going?” Kim whispers.

“You can be louder,” Shego smirks just a little. “It’s done. We’re in the clear.”

Shego pulls out and they’re on their way.

“Holy shit,” Kim whispers. 

Shego punches Kim on the arm. “Yeah! Holy shit, dude. That was fucking wild! When Betty interrogated you, like, oh my God, I thought we were effed.”

“Yeah,” Kim says breathlessly, just now remembering to put on her seatbelt. “Wow, what… oh my God. You do this for a  _ living _ ?” Did that seriously just happen?

“Now I do, hard for me though because of my name. You though?” Shego gives Kim a quick seductive glance. “You’re still clean. For now. Uh, if you’re in. You know, you don’t have to…”

Kim watches the city pass by as they whizz down the highway. “I… I probably will. Wh-what happens to Bortel though?”

“Uh… heh, yeah, so that’s… the unsexy part of this gig.”

“Oh,” Kim grunts, “Are we… ki—”

“Yeah. K-word and all.”

“Mm,” Kim tries to make eye contact with Shego, but her eyes won’t linger away from the road. She’s dead focused. 

“Listen… this makes sense, I know you won’t like it but… I want you to meet Big “Big” Daddy,” Shego says. “Hear him out.”

“Shego, I know who Big “Big” Daddy is, it’s—”

“Sh,” this is what gets Shego to look straight at Kim. “Don’t overthink it. You are probably right about who it is, but… just listen. He’s different now. I promise you.”

Kim nods and looks back to the road.

It’s very quiet for the rest of the drive.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can [follow me on Twitter](https://twitter.com/IAmLordMeatwad) for tweets about my cats and fanfic, and [follow me on Insta](https://www.instagram.com/katrinajagelski/) for similar stuff. Occasionally I do live reads for my original fiction and fanfic.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kim meets Big "Big" Daddy Brotherson.

“I want you to understand something, Kimmie,” Shego says to Kim with sudden urgency.

It’s been only three hours since the heist at Global Justice, and Kim is waiting outside large, ornate double doors in an otherwise empty building with Shego. Kim really wants to take Shego’s hand because something is deeply unsettling her inside, but she just needs to hold it together a little longer.

“What,” Kim sighs.

Shego frowns. “ _ No one _ gets to meet Big “Big” Daddy Brotherson, okay?”

Kim looks at her. “But… it’s not Big—”

“—just, hear me out, okay? You have figured out a lot. Like, it took me just five seconds of looking at that whack cork board set-up you got… you got a lot of it right, Kim.”

_ Kim. _ This isn’t their usual banter or play. Shego is talking right to her.

“You’re a genius, Kim but…” 

There’s that name again.  _ Kim _ . 

Shego takes Kim’s hand, and brushes her thumb over Kim’s knuckle. Kim’s face flushes; she should be thinking about Big “Big” Daddy but instead she’s stuck on what Shego and her mean to each other. It’s never been like this before between them, and… Kim kinda likes that.

“...trust me. It’s not all… what you think. Are you ready?”

Kim thinks for a few seconds. She needs to focus and appreciate this. “Yeah.”

“Okay, let’s go,” Shego says softly, and slams the doors open, immediately releasing Kim and storming in with a very dominating energy.

And of course — it is Doctor Drakken waiting for them. Standing in this horribly dark, gothic business office with high ceilings and a fireplace. He swivels his massive office chair to face them. “Kimberly Ann Possible… we’ve been expecting yo—what. Where is she? Shego, get out of the — yes, there she is.”

Drakken gets up and extends his hand. “Hello.”

He’s dressed in a black suit, the scar under his eye more pronounced than ever before. Gone is the messy, ragged ponytail. His black hair is free of tangles, and shoulder length. His voice is softer, his gaze less intense, everything is different. Tentatively, Kim takes his hand and shakes it. “Hello Drakken.”

“Ah!” Drakken interrupts, snapping his fingers to turn on the lights. “ _ Drakken _ was a moniker. It’s over, it’s not what I do anymore. I’m Big “Big” Daddy Brotherson now, Kimberly Ann. I understand it’s a mouthful… you may call me Drew if you’d like. But I prefer...”

“Big “Big” Daddy,” Kim repeats, and it feels wrong. He’s Drakken still. A new look doesn’t change that.

Kim narrows her eyes, and rests the box of Moodulators into her lap as she takes a seat. Shego pulls up a chair herself. 

Drakken—Drew? No… she’s not ready to think of him as Drew either… Drakken looks at Shego. “Shego, before we move on, I do need to address one teensy little problem with our abduction.”

Shego scoffs. “What is it now, dude?”

“You didn’t return the rental car,” Drakken says, and at first, Kim thinks he’s joking. But no, it’s very humourless. “The car is due at 5pm, which means people will know something’s wrong exactly  _ then _ . His flight, at 2am tonight, that was supposed to be the first sign he’s been taken.”

“Doc,” Shego is definitely trying to grin and bear it. “Ya really didn’t give us a lot of time to plan this one…”

“Y-yes,” Drakken slumps. “That’s true, just… next time?”

Kim looks between the two of them, feeling incredibly defensive towards Shego. “Shouldn’t Betty know by now that there’s a problem? The fake Moodulators were set to self-destruct in—”

“Thirty minutes yes,” Drakken snips. “She’ll assume he defrauded her. Perhaps she’ll send agents to  _ retrieve  _ Bortel, but…”

“I think,” Kim interrupts boldly. “The sooner Betty knows there is a problem the better. If she’s vindictive enough to send people out to get him, I mean, maybe she’ll be fine knowing someone snagged him so she doesn’t have to deal. Betty read to me as very lazy when we met.”

Drakken holds his gaze on her for a long time, until finally breaking into a smile. “Yes, that is true. Ooh, I am… honestly Kimberly Ann, I am so humbled to have you here.”

“He means that,” Shego eggs on with so much pride. “Doc, you need me to refresh you on what Princess has already figured out?”

Kim shudders at the idea. It’s been a long time since people have talked about her behind her back in a positive way. 

“No,” Drakken says smugly. “I’m aware. You’re very clever, Kimberly Ann, but there are a few pieces I don’t think you understand quite yet. Please hand me the Moodulators.”

She gently places the box on the table. Part of her almost slipped one to herself earlier for safe keeping, but she doesn’t want to get caught doing anything bad right now.

“You think I’m trying to take over the world, don’t you?” Drakken rests his chin on his tiny hands.

Kim takes in some air. “I think… yeah, I mean… this fits your M.O. You  _ steal _ —” Drakken flinches at the mere mention of that horrible word. “—outsource from other scientists and use their work to do your villainous, villainous plans.”

Drakken still looks so smug. “If you know it’s bad, why would you do it?”

Kim flushes, and she feels very small before him for the first time in her life. “I trust Shego.”

Shego’s finger brushes past Kim’s and it helps a little bit. 

“Well, let me tell you a story, Kimberly Ann,” Drakken says with such thespian flourish. “Obviously, you remember the time we saved the world together—”

“—and your prompt return to form after,” Kim finishes. “Yeah.”

Drakken opens his mouth to monologue, but Kim interrupts him, knee bobbing up and down. “I wanted to say that… it was really disappointing to hear you two were back. I talked you both up to so many people after Lowardia and… sorry, I just wanted to get that off my chest.”

Drakken nods sympathetically. “It wasn’t the same when I came back. The world changed, and suddenly everyone was developing weapons and finding ways to get better at war and well, it was scary.”

Kim definitely remembers that. There were a few days in the horrible gap year she’ll never forget. 

First time she ever took a bullet from a villain. And many more.

“There are people out there who waste all of their intellect on ways to destroy,” Drakken explains. “I used to be one of them—”

“ _ Tried _ to be one of them,” Shego slips in.

“Nyegh!” Drakken whines. “Don’t undercut me, Shego, I’m telling a story. Look at Cyrus Bortel, Kimberly Ann. Look at his life’s work. It’s dedicated to manipulating people, specifically soldiers, to be conditioned to fight better for their countries. We’re in a very fast arms’ race right now and… well, Shego. Would you kindly?”

The lights dim again, the only light coming from the fireplace. Kim feels unsettled enough as is so this is really chill.

A little ember flares onto Shego’s fingertip, and she dangles it over the Moodulators, letting it fall in. The little metal machines sizzle and crackle and explode into a beautiful green fire before Kim’s eyes. She double takes, incredibly confused.

“We’re… destroying them?” she asks.

“Mhm,” Drakken punches his desk and a projection hits the wall behind them. Kim looks past her shoulder to see an image of Doctor Cyrus Bortel’s lab. “Next we hit that. See, what you missed in your research Kimberly Ann is the destruction of the labs infiltrated.” 

Kim turns on Shego fast. “Wait… are you… you burn them?”

Shego grins and kicks towards Drakken. “I’d be so lucky. No, it’s a much more formal process, Princess. But it’s not hard to play the system in our favor. Doc has a few aliases he uses to—”

“That’s fine, Shego,” Drakken snips. “Little too nitty gritty.”

Shego arches an eyebrow. “Whatever. But yeah, the other thing you missed in your research is the oversight that we were stealing  _ weapons _ specifically. Crazy shit, I’m talking variations on mustard gas and stuff you don’t want to think about. We kill it, destroy every last piece of it, and then…”

“...you let the knowledge die with the person,” Kim says faintly, sinking deeper into the chair. “You… you aren’t lying to me, right? This is real.”

“Yes,” Drakken sighs. “I understand that… it seems wrong. To hold back science and kill but…”

“...a lot of science is killing us now,” Kim says. Is she really in a room with these specific people talking about this? “I mean, war, climate change…”

“Exactly,” Drakken reassures. “I mean, we’re focused on just arms now.”

“Yeah,” Kim sighs. “But…” She looks away and Drakken rambles some more. She’s not sure if she should try to argue, she’s not sure if she’s even  _ smart _ enough to argue. Drakken and Shego have been at this for so long. This isn’t really anything she’s put thought into before.

Kim interrupts Drakken’s lecture, “But what if I killed you in the old days?”

Drakken blinks. “Um.”

Shego nudges Kim’s shoulder. “Awkwaaaaard…”

“I’m serious!” Kim feels a sudden flare of inspiration. “What if I killed you in high school? You were  _ bad _ , there were some plans you had that were really  _ bad _ , and… I mean, look at you now. I know you’re doing this in good faith. But if I killed you.”

She never really thought about ever doing that in high school. Because back then it was fun.

“You make a fair point,” Drakken shrugs. “But, look at Monkey Fiske, Duff Killigan, DNAmy, and—”

“I get it,” Kim snips.

Drakken nods, pausing to take a breath. “They didn’t redeem themselves, they’re still out there. We’re at a point where we can’t take the risk.”

Kim doesn’t really know how to respond to that, so she fidgets in her chair. She wants this conversation to keep going, there’s just… a lot of questions, but most of them are too far away to grapple down.

“Ron,” Kim blurts out. She immediately hates it. Hates that she’s thinking of him after what he did to her. But she needs to know. He’s like, the whole reason there even is an arms’ race.

“What’s your plan for Ron?”

Drakken bites his lip. “Well, if we’re being forward, Stoppable is unfortunately a Class A threat, from my understanding of his powers. Eventually, we would want to neutralize him.”

Kim feels so many stupid emotions come to her at once. “What if… like, I mean, he’s not, like, doing any bad right now. Y’know? A-and…” She feels these horrible tears leaking from her eyes. “...i-i-i-if we attacked him, maybe that’s what would escalate him to be really bad? Ya know?”

Shego’s pupils suddenly dilate, and it distracts Kim. Kim looks over to Shego just staring at her. “Sh-Shego?”

Shego suddenly touches Kim’s shoulder with this fierce energy, and pulls her in. “Kimmie. You don’t have to keep defending him.”

Kim relaxes under Shego’s hold. Dammit. She didn’t want Shego to know, and already she’s putting two and two together.

Drakken blinks in confusion.

“It’s girl stuff, Doc, don’t worry,” Shego sighs.

“Ah,” Drakken says airily, and smiles in a way Kim hopes is genuine. He brings the lights back up, killing the projection. “I don’t meet with most people, Kimberly Ann but you in particular… you’re gifted and have an iron will. You really can do anything and…”

“Doc,” Shego urges, that fierce energy returning. 

“...there is paperwork and contracts to work out,” Drakken drawls on. “Of course you’d need to reconsider some of your educational obligations…”

“ _ Doc _ ,” Shego growls, getting up with Kim. “She needs time. Let her think. I’ll talk to her.” Shego leans into Kim’s ear and whispers, “Come on.”

* * *

Kim and Shego sit across each once again at the Bermuda Triangle. Given that it’s not quite late into the night yet, it’s quiet. They don’t really talk much and Kim’s not hungry. She takes off the blazer and tie at least. It’s a lot less constraining on her body.

“I’m really worried about killing people,” Kim admits after a very long silence. “I… I don’t want to do it.”

Shego settles down her froofy drink. “Wait. Princess, you’re telling me you’ve never…”

Kim shakes her head and Shego frowns.

“Oh, okay, yeah that would… I mean, didn’t the Buffoon, uh, with the Lowardians…?”

“And more,” Kim sighs. “I… I really don’t feel comfortable talking anymore about Ron than I did.” She knows Shego will understand that. “It was more than the Lowardians though, I’ll say that.” 

Shego nods and doesn’t say anything, which means Kim needs to continue rambling. Or she could drink. But she knows she needs to stay sober right now. This is a big deal.

“If I… said yes… do I definitely  _ need _ to do the killing?”

Shego looks up at her. “Yeah, I mean… it’s complicated but, like, you’d be our New York Agent. I personally float whereevs, but I’m not always going to be with you.”

“Oh.”

Kim looks down at her hand clutching the glass. Her hand is sweaty and trembling. She suddenly feels a little choked up. She excuses herself fast before Shego notices, and crashes into a bathroom stall, trying her best breathing exercises to prevent a panic attack.

Why does it matter if her and Shego are together? 

Why did she expect that? 

Why is she even doing this? She doesn’t even know if she understands why this work needs to be done, if she even believes in it at all. She only came because she trusts Shego’s judgment. She admitted to it out loud already, and… it was more than that. 

She just kind of imagined her doing the same sort of thing, just with Shego subbing in for Ron. So stupid, why the fuck did she think that?

Well, obviously… Kim  _ likes _ Shego. A lot.

She’d like to think Shego likes Kim back but… is Kim ready for dating? Fuck, is she ready to date someone she’d be working with again? That was part of the reason Ron and her fell apart. 

Can’t she just date Shego without going on this crazy journey to save the world again? Can’t she just stay your basic average girl in New York City with an anxiety disorder and a history of alcoholism from her broken relationship (and broken life)?

Kim’s not  _ ready _ for real field work again. She’s not physically or mentally fit and… and… God, Shego. Shego is…

Kim feels ashamed of it. She did all of this for Shego and if Shego knew that, she’d laugh at her. Just like she did in the old days.

Kim comes back out and picks up her things, slipping them back on. The dried tears on her cheeks are painfully obvious, but it’s not worth hiding them.

“Shego, this is really great… I just need time to be alone right now. I can’t focus on you right now and…”

Shego gets up and hugs Kim. Pulls her in and hugs her tight, and she’s so warm and tender. 

When had Shego become so emotionally aware? 

Like, damn.

“It’s okay, Kimmie,” Shego says. “No one’s making you do anything, not on my watch. Okay?”

Kim looks at her hard and nods. “Okay.”

* * *

Kim sits in her bedroom alone, dressed in her pajamas at four o’clock in the afternoon. She skipped class again and it’s been days since she last spoke to Shego.

Her mind just keeps getting stuck on the same idea: Death. Killing people. Kim doesn’t want to kill people, that’s just so… final. She understands the ethics of it, killing people to save even more. 

Maybe Kim has killed before. She is sure people have died before in the fallout of her heroics. Like she took too long to stop an active doomsday machine. Or maybe in a high speed chase, she created a series of car crashes. Kim has considered it before, but has made a vow to not overthink things ever.

She pulls out her phone. There really is only one person she can talk to about this, and she hates that. She hates it  _ a lot _ but she doesn’t know who else to call. 

She dials the number. 

He picks up after the first ring. Damn, she’s not ready.

“Kim?”

“Ron.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can [follow me on Twitter](https://twitter.com/IAmLordMeatwad) for tweets about my cats and fanfic, and [follow me on Insta](https://www.instagram.com/katrinajagelski/) for similar stuff. Occasionally I do live reads for my original fiction and fanfic.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kim talks to Ron.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> cw: domestic abuse

Kim’s scared. She knows this is a bad idea; how on Earth can a conversation with Ron go well?

“ _ Whoa, Kim _ ,” Ron says, and she can hear his mouth lift into a smile. “ _ You’re calling about my last text, right? _ ”

Ugh. Unbelievable. Kim frowns. “Uh, nooo… what—what are you talking about?”

“ _ Oh _ ,” he suddenly withdraws. “ _ Oh. So… you don’t read my texts. _ ”

Kim doesn’t really want to dignify that with a response. She reaches over to her door and closes it gently. Her roomies will get pissed if they overhear her talking to her piece of shit ex-boyfriend.

“Ground rules,” Kim says. “I am not calling you to talk about  _ us _ —”

He snorts.

“—so please, Ron. For the last time, it’s over.”

“ _ Then what the fuck do you want from me. _ ”

Wow, that hurts. “I need you… to not ask questions, okay? It’s about… Team Possible.”

A pause. “ _ Kim, you’re done though. What is there to say? _ ”

Kim bites her lip.

“ _ Oh shit _ .”

“Ron, I said don’t ask ques—”

“ _ You’re working again, aren’t you? _ ”

Kim doesn’t say anything; she needs him to respect her rule.

“ _ Fuck me. Awesome, so you destroyed the only thing I liked doing with my life _ —”

“You could’ve kept doing missions.”

“— _ and broke up with me for no reason. Fuck you, Kim _ .”

She furrows her brow. “Yeah? Well fuck you too, can you please listen to me for a goddamned second? Seriously, what is your problem?”

“ _ You. You’re my problem. What the fuck do you want to ask me. Let’s just this dumb shit over with _ .”

Her hand is shaking right now. She curls up on her bed, trying to keep her emotions in check but it is so hard with him. “You’ve… killed people.”

“ _ Uh, try again, KP. I only killed aliens, it’s different _ —”

“Ron,” Kim urges. “How on Earth do you expect any of your stupid text messages will win me over when you compulsively lie to me everytime we talk? I know it goes a lot deeper than the Lowardians; people kept disappearing during our missions in our last year together.”

Wade was the one pointing it out. Numbers weren’t matching up, mooks and goons were just… disappearing, never to be found again. Sure, the missions got way more serious that year, and Kim was like, sort of thinking about doing some killing herself but like… they never talked about it. He pretended it wasn’t happening and walked away every night like everything was hunky dory. And they’d fuck each other to drown out the misery.

Did Wade suspect Ron? No. If anything, he thought it was Kim. The journalists following Team Possible thought Kim was killing people, because it just didn’t click with Ron’s  _ image _ . Still doesn’t, now that tabloids say that Kim Possible is a cold hearted ice queen.

She never commented on it publicly; because to say it wasn’t her would put all the blame on Ron. And she ddin’t want to do that. He’s never been as good as she is at taking the heat.

“ _ How come you get to ask all the questions, Kim? It’s not fair, you’re always giving me a hard time but the second I _ —”

She can’t take it, Kim snaps and yells at him. “Would you just shut up for a second?!” It surprises even her. She holds her phone down and looks at the time. “Two minute and thirty seconds, Ron. We are nearly three minutes in and you won’t let me ask my—”

“ _ Fine, what do you want? _ ”

“You’d know if you would just shut up for a—”

“ _ That’s not the question, Kim, ask the fucking _ —”

“I am trying to—”

“ _ No you’re gaslighting me! _ ”

“That’s not what gaslighting means you abusive fucksti—”

“ _ Then WHAT, Kim?! _ ” Ron shrieks and it hurts her ears.

She pulls away, already tearing up. Just hearing his voice affects her soul in such a physical way. 

“You’ve killed people,” Kim says with such heavy breaths. “How did you deal with that? I need to understand.”

Four years it has taken for her to finally say it to his face that  _ Yes Ron, I knew you were the one killing criminals _ . But she’s only asking for her own self interest. She doesn’t even think his answer will be helpful. This call is definitely a mistake.

“ _ Those people were bad, so like, whatever. Fuck ‘em. It’s like when you see a bad guy die in a movie. _ ”

Kim sighs, fighting so hard to restrain her tears. The second she shows weakness he’ll latch onto it. “I think it’s more complicated than that.”

A long pause, and she hears Ron wheeze from shock.

“... _ Oh my God, you killed someone, didn’t you? _ ”

“No!” Kim physically gets to her feet. “God,  _ no _ ! Do not—do NOT repeat that to  _ anyone _ . I haven’t… I haven’t done anything, okay? I’m out. I swear to God, Ron, I’m out.”

“ _ Then why are you even asking me _ ?”

Kim doesn’t answer that. If he knew what Kim was really doing, God, she would never hear the end of it.

“ _ Kim _ ,” Ron repeats and his voice is cold and cuts like glass. “ _ Why are you asking me about killing people? _ ”

She feels so small right now. “I don’t have to tell you anything.”

“ _ Oh, okay, so you’re just gonna call me up out of nowhere and make me visit my traumas again _ —”

And  _ that _ is when it goes way too far for Kim. No. Not happening. He is not slinging this shit at her.

“Trauma?!” Kim spits with venom. “Trauma.  _ You _ have trauma. Ha! Yeah right. You killed people and act like it’s  _ fine _ you sociopath—”

_ Crack _ .

Kim stumbles back and crashes into her mirror, the glass shattering behind her. She collapses to the floor, blood spilling from her mouth, body going limp, phone besides her hip. She doesn’t know where Ron is right now, but he just slapped her with his godlike powers and now she’s bleeding, her clothes covered in shards of glass. 

Kim’s girlfriends kick the door open and rush her, one of them scampering to the bathroom for the first aid kit. Another boosts her up, rubbing her back gently as Kim sobs. Kim reaches towards her phone, but the girls don’t let her take it.

“ _ Fuck Kim _ ,” Kim can hear Ron faintly scream from her phone. He’s sobbing too. “ _ I don’t know what came over me _ — _ I am  _ **_so_ ** _ sorry, I’ll _ —”

Erica picks up the phone and screams. “Fuck you, you piece of shit! You stay away from her or I’m calling the cops on your ass.”

Click.

Erica drops the phone and looks at Kim. “Hey, hey, it’s okay, sh… you’re safe, you’re with us and—”

Kim doesn’t hear the rest of what Erica says. This high pitched keening rings in her ears and she screams, arms folding in and crumpling. She contorts wildly, lips sticking to the blood spraying from her mouth. She becomes conscious of Erica holding her, and she relaxes, crumpling in her arms, head bowed against Erica’s chest. 

* * *

Kim can never be safe as long as Ron is alive. 

It started a few months ago into their long distance relationship. There would be these playful pinches Ron would give her from across the world, and he would continue even after she asked him to stop. Of course it escalated. 

By the end of freshman year of college, Kim had to create a fake identity so that she could stay at a shelter for battered women. The fake identity was so no one could clock her. If any tabloids caught whiff of Kim Possible being at a shelter, well, they’d easily be able to identify Ron as an abuser, and she didn’t want that for him. He just needed space, and some time to work out his problems.

It would also almost certainly make her situation even unsafe.

She always felt guilty there. All the other women needed the shelter to stay out of an unsafe home. But for Kim, there was no running. Ron could hit her from wherever and she couldn’t do anything about it. But being in the presence of other women who were experiencing the same thing felt right.

But Ron never got help he so desperately needed, and Kim always came back. She’d endure him for a few months, snap, and go to the shelter. There was one point in their relationship when the summer heat was sweltering, but Kim needed to wear long sleeve clothing to cover all of her bruises. She never told anyone what was going on. Not even her parents. Except for Bonnie.

It happened the first night Bonnie and Kim had sex. Kim didn’t expect their hangout sesh to turn into sex; she came in slacks and a turtleneck. Bonnie kept teasing Kim and calling her Steve Jobs. One thing led to another, and all of a sudden Bonnie was looking at Kim’s purpled neck. Ron’s fingerprints were all around Kim’s throat. So Kim swore Bonnie to secrecy. 

That’s why Kim is at Bonnie’s doorstep again. 

Junior opens the door with his eyes closed, peeking between his fingers. “Oh, you’re decent this time…”

“Junior, shut up,” Bonnie snaps, gently taking Kim by the wrist and pulling her away. Bonnie slams the bedroom door shut and holds Kim so tight, massaging her back. It’s been an hour since the slap, and Kim has a pretty awful black eye now. “I am going to fucking kill him for you, Kim.”

“Thanks,” Kim coughs. “I hate him too.”

Bonnie’s fingers brush over Kim’s scalp, Bonnie’s so gentle when she needs to be, and she just stays quiet as Kim sobs into her arms. 

Ron was Kim’s best friend since Pre-K. How could this have possibly happened? He was so sweet,  _ is _ so sweet. What did she do to deserve this?

:”Um,” Bonnie asks after a few minutes, a little flushed. “Do you want to… like… uh, fuck? Heh.”

“No, I’m sorry,” Kim looks up at Bonnie. 

Bonnie frowns. “It’s cool. Don’t be sorry, Kim, seriously. I really appreciate that you come to me for this stuff.”

Kim nods and presses herself deeper into Bonnie, tears dry on her cheeks. “I don’t feel safe at home right now. I just want to be with someone who loves me.”

Bonnie smiles and pokes Kim’s nose. “You are so fucking charming, you know that, right?”

“Yeah,” Kim smirks. 

Secretly, Kim wishes she could be in Shego’s arms and not Bonnie’s. But she doesn’t even know how to reach out to Shego. Seems like Shego will just find her when it’s important. Unless Kim takes the gig. 

For a moment, Kim considers telling Bonnie about what’s really going on with her, but that is so not a good idea. Not today.

Today she really just needs to cry and cuddle with someone. So she does.

* * *

The next time Kim sees Shego, she is in the packed streets of New York City on the way to the convenience store for a snack food run. Kim doesn’t actually even see Shego, she just feels a brunt force slam into her chest. Kim leans back with the impact, and all of a sudden whatever it was that hit her is gone. She looks behind her and sees a familiar mane of raven hair sinking away into the crowd, then focuses on the manilla folder in her hands.

There’s a gun inside. Also an MP3 player. Kim plugs in the attached earbuds and ducks into an alleyway.

“ _ Hi, it’s me _ ,” says the prerecorded Shego. “ _ Emergency in Europe, I’m going to be MIA. Now, I hear that you’re still wiffly wafflin’ on what you want to do about the gig. Not gonna lie, Princess. Doc’s getting impatient and something big is going down in New York soon. If you want in, you need to kill Bortel pronto. _

_ “I’m sorry I can’t support you for this. I know it’s not easy your first time. Don’t do it unless you want it. Okay Kimmie? Addy’s on the gun. Go there when you’re ready. You have forty eights hours. If you miss the window, Bortel gets moved and someone else will just ice him. Do what feels right. I love ya and shit. This message will self-destruct in five seconds _ .”

_ I love ya and shit _ ? Damn, coming from Shego, that’s like a marriage proposal. It distracts Kim from the timer ticking down on the MP3 player. She catches it a second too long and winces, expecting a big explosion. But there’s no fanfare, at the end of the five seconds, the screen cracks and fizzles instead. Little puff of smoke. 

Kim slips the MP3 player away and slides the folder underneath her hoodie. 

Forty eight hours to work up the nerve to kill someone. 

Okay. 

_ Deep breath, Possible. You can do this. _


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kim makes her first kill.

Kim decides not to wait the full forty eight hours before Bortel gets moved; she heads to the warehouse addressed to her the night she receives her assignment, gun in tow. She packs a beer with her just in case. Not healthy, but. 

She knows she’s going to do it, she just doesn’t know what it’ll take for that to happen.

The warehouse is at a harbor. Very spooky. It’s cold, she hugs her leather jacket closer to her sweater. Thanksgiving is coming up, and it’s looking to be a chilly winter.

Getting into the warehouse is simple, she just lifts the metal door and shuts it behind her, leaving her alone with Doctor Cyrus Bortel. He’s chained to a pole at the center of the empty space, seated on a wooden chair. He’s gagged and crying. This feels cruel. 

It’s pitch black aside from the lamp strung directly over Bortel’s head.

Kim takes the gun out, presenting it to Bortel to make it clear to him right out of the gate what will happen. She doesn’t want to fuck with his head after all. She struts over and pulls the gag out, letting him breathe for a moment. “You know why you’re here, right?” she asks.

Bortel eyes her with such disdain. “If I knew it’d be this… I’d have let you kill me at Global Justice.”

Kim takes that in but doesn’t flinch, and kneels down to his level. She starts with a question. This might make it easier. “Are you ready to die?”

Bortel ignores her, homing in on her black eye. He knows she has weaknesses. “Did you… get into a fight?”

Kim tells herself he’s not asking this in good faith. After all, he’s a scientist skilled in emotional manipulation. She doesn’t answer him and gets up, standing over him. This should be easy. He’s a bad person, dedicated to creating inventions that can only cause harm. He does this for money. He buys himself luxurious things as if he deserves them.

She’s checked his profile. No family, hardly any friends, nothing. No one will miss him, or even remember him. Kim almost feels bad waiting this long to do it. He must have been miserable waiting like this, knowing the first person he sees will just kill him.

Still, Kim turns around and pulls out her beer. She’s trying to kick drinking entirely but she really needs it right now. Walks around in a full circle, dropping the metal cap on the floor and chugging it. It definitely hits, but not as hard as she’d like. But it’s what she’s got. 

She drops the bottle to the ground and gets closer to Bortel, his eyes black as coals and filled with disdain. “You’re a coward,” he says.

“I’m a coward?” she bends down to her haunches, staring at him. “How.”

“You don’t even want to be doing this,” Bortel spits. “You don’t care about science! Or progress, you just… just…”

She hates him. 

But Kim has hated a lot of people. She mostly hates Ron, but he doesn’t want to kill him. Why would she? It’s irrational.

But she knows… Ron will have to be extinguished at some point if Drakken is serious. A lot of people will.

Bortel is her slippery slope. Kim doesn’t want to kill, but she does like saving the world. Drakken is telling her this is how you save the world.

Bortel lurches at her, restrained by the chains and bounces back against the pole. “Please, just kill me already! You’ve taken everything from me: my Moodulators, my life’s work, and now  _ me _ . Just fucking end it already.”

Kim looks at the gun, turning it over in her hand. She’s never used one of these before. She knows there will be some knockback that might hurt her wrist. His blood may spray onto her. 

God, she’s not even sure what the best thing to shoot is. Like what is the least painful but most effective.

She focuses on his pink faces, the way the eyes twitch. She thinks of what’s inside his mind. She thinks about the Moodulators.

She remembers how it felt to have a Moodulator on her neck, bringing about her worst memories all at once. She images the anger it could give someone, how it could radicalize an agent to do horrible things to innocent people. She’s already heard enough stories.

Her arms tense and she raises the gun, locking Bortel into her sights. He yells but she stops listening. She focuses on his twitching. Imagines Agent Will Du, Hell, even herself, controlled by these horrible, manipulative machines. 

They condition soldiers and create war against… other conditioned soldiers. It’s the beginning to an end.

Kim’s finger tightens around the trigger, and Bortel blinks. She shows him anger, she shows him what he tried to manufacture.

Scared. He can’t face his own creation. It should have never existed.

So Kim takes the shot, right through the forehead, and Bortel’s head slams against the pole. All of that bravado fades and Kim falls to all four of her limbs, gun clattering besides her. She clamps her eyes tight, biting down on a scream. She needs to be strong. 

A man is dead. Kim killed him. She did it. She’s part of the Triangle now.

Kim looks up, eyes glassy.

Bortel is bleeding and not moving, but the blood is green. It drips to the floor and  _ hisses _ . Wait… that’s not—

Lights cut on and it’s blinding. Everything is bathed in white, Kim blocks it with her elbow and when her eyes adjust she looks past to see the walls of the warehouse sinking into the ground revealing… yet another warehouse and Doctor Drakken standing at the edge, staring at her with a grave expression. He’s holding a square box in his hands, possibly a projector. But she feels so much rage.

She worked herself up over  _ nothing. _ Unless Bortel has always been a Synthodrone, she just got played.

Kim kicks the gun up to his chest, tears in her eyes. “What did you  _ do _ ?!”

He immediately raises a hand up. “Calm down, Kimberly Ann… please.”

Kim sidesteps around, keeping the same distance from Drakken at all times. “Why is he a Synthodrone? You tricked me.”

God, what is he holding? Is it a projector? It’s scaring the shit out of her.

“I—” Drakken sighs, and wipes his forehead and breaks the gap between them. Kim backs away as he shoves the fake Bortel to the floor and takes a seat. “Bortel died a while ago.”

Kim keeps the gun on his forehead. “When?”

Drakken stays strong. He’s probably had a lot of guns pointed at him in the past few years. “Normally, we kill our captors day-of. Safer for both us  _ and  _ them. So Shego…” He mumbles some nonsense to fill in the gap. “...Bortel took an extra day because I needed to extract his memories to create  _ this _ when it became obvious you needed time. We can’t risk holding our people for too long, Kimberly Ann.”

This sounds sort of reasonable. It makes her feel dumb for waiting so long, and dumb for thinking she was tricked. Kim buys it, and tosses the gun to the floor, and motions at the chair. “Can I…” 

“Of course.” They swap and he crosses his arms, standing over her. “The point is you passed Kimberly Ann. You’re in.”

He smiles so wide it almost scares her, because he’s not showing teeth like he used to when he was straight up evil.

“I guess I am,” Kim sighs. 

“Good,” he reassures. “The method Shego communicated with you is common, get used to it. You and I will not make as much contact as we are now. Oftentimes you’ll be alone.”

This is so bizarre. She didn’t think this kind of world was real. She’s so used to a public internet page running the whole operation. 

“I need an assignment,” Kim says eagerly, not noticing her knee bobbing up and down. 

“You do,” Drakken purses his lips. “I have one but… first, this.” He pulls a manilla folder from his blazer, handing it to her. “These are some of Shego’s recommendations on your own personal security as well as your fitness, she suggested you are… well, you know.”

Yes, she’s a little out of shape here and there.

“You’re going to ask me to drop drinking, aren’t you?” she asks. 

“Yes,” Drakken nods. “It worries me. Um, pardon me, I’m just noticing you, uh…” He runs a finger under his eye where Kim is sporting a shiner. “...are you—”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” she groans. “Sorry.”

“Yes,” Drakken nods awkwardly, and finally settles down the weird white thing. Up close, it’s obvious that it’s a projector. Like she thought. Idiot. Why did she think it was anything else? “This will start in exactly one minute. I’m leaving you now. Don’t worry about clean-up, we have a crew who will… you know. Good luck, Kimberly Ann.”

And that’s that. Drakken leaves with little fanfare and Kim waits for the projector to start, her heart pounding.

When it’s been exactly one minute, light hits the wall and Kim sees several images of Montgomery Fiske. Revived shortly after Lowardia, he’s shirked the genetic mutations implanted into him so that he can blend in better with the organized crime world.

A woman speaks through the projector’s speakers. “ _ Miss Possible, glad to have you on board. Within the next week, Montgomery Fiske will be attending an auction with the intention of buying a specific jewel. _ ”

The images change and show various photos of a dazzling ruby. It looks vaguely familiar to her. When it flashes a profile on Aviarius paired with an article about how he stole Team Go’s powers a few years ago, it becomes obvious what this is.

“ _ Our intelligence has us under the belief that Fiske wants the ruby to recreate the staff that can steal powers, in a bid to steal the powers of Ron Stoppable, as Fiske still believes himself to be the true Mystical Monkey Master. Our intelligence has also informed us that Team Go… _ ”

Minus Shego, profiles on each member of the family flash on the wall. Hego, Super Strength. Mego, Size Manipulation. Wegos, Mass Duplication. 

“ _...will be present. They seek to stop Fiske and capture the ruby. This is not enough.” _

Kim leans back. The visuals on this thing are rapid, and already information is falling out of her brain. There’s also a lot of questions. She has no team, and likely no time to assemble anything. No intel on schedules, activities, nothing. 

But she’ll make it work.

_ “Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to destroy the ruby at all costs. You will report to your handler, Hank Perkins, at the earliest convenience. If you are caught or killed, the Bermuda Triangle will disavow any knowledge of your actions. Good luck, Kim. This message will self-destruct in five seconds.” _

Five seconds pass and the projector bursts into flame, killing the light. She kicks it with her foot and bites her finger. 

Even though the body was a fake, she did it. She brought herself down to the level of killing someone. She might have to do it again soon. But she’s ready. She thinks.

“Thank you,” she whispers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter will be a two-parter. I'll release both on Monday, November 2nd. : )


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pre-Heist

So Kim has a lot of problems with this mission the second she sits down to think about it. Like, she needs to somehow slip under Team Go’s radar and steal an all powerful ruby from Monkey Fist. By herself. Like okay, man.

  1. How exactly is she supposed to handle this without a team? Specifically, without a Wade.  
  

  2. How is she supposed to destroy the ruby? Isn’t it magic or whatever? Can she jackhammer it or something?  
  

  3. How is Kim supposed to get the ruby when so many powerful eyes will be on it?



Which is why Kim reports to Hank Perkins at her earliest convenience but not necessarily his. It’s noon the next day when she stumbles into the Bermuda Triangle. He’s schmoozing with someone who looks to be some kind of politician, which Kim is  _ so _ not about, so she taps Hank on the shoulder.

Hank looks back to her and his smile is warm but his eyes are cold as ice. “Kim Possible… what a pleasant surprise, uh, Mr. Senator? I must be off, thank you for coming.”

The moment they are out of earshot, he leans in and hisses, “You couldn’t have waited a moment?”

“Sorry, I’m anxious.”

“Oh,  _ you’re _ anxious,” Hank rolls his eyes. “I guess I’ll move planets for you.” 

Kim smirks. She’s so used to being worshipped by everyone who crosses her path, it’s nice for someone to be a little shit to her.

* * *

They sit across together in an otherwise empty banquet room. At first, the Bermuda Triangle was all so glamorous but the more Kim looks at it all, she sees the seams; it’s a janky ass operation on life support. It’s a less than average restaurant with overpriced food that people only go to when invited by villains. She wonders how bad the Yelp reviews are.

“I’m really concerned about running this solo,” Kim starts. “I wasn’t even solo at the Global Justice op, and that was an  _ easy job _ . I’m being asked to work ten times harder with no help, I’m worried. You feel me, Hank?”

Hank crosses his arms, sticking his nose in the air. “Possible, you haven’t been vetted enough to build a team.” 

“I have’t been vetted enou—” Kim repeats. “—Hank, you know who you’re talking to—”

“Vetted with  _ us _ ,” Hank presses his teeth together. “In due time, Possible. Right now, we make due.”

Kim clasps her hands together. 

That. Sucks.

“Okay, so if I  _ have t _ o go solo, I propose we steal the ruby  _ before  _ the auction—”

“We don’t have intel on that,” Hank shakes his head. “If we did, believe me, we’d do what you’re saying.”

“What?” Kim sputters. “How do we not—” She takes one long look at Hank’s exhausted eyes, and gives up. “—I don’t  _ like _ the idea of doing this in such a public facing way. Alone.”

Hank offers a wry smile. “You won’t be. I’ve been thinking it over, and I think what is easiest is for you isto attend the auction as Mr. Fiske’s personal bodyguard.” He raises a hand to stop her as she makes a face. “Hear me out. It gets you into close enough proximity to him where you can engage with them… privately.”

“Thanks, I hate it,” Kim sighs. “Why would Fiske hire me anyways? We used to be rivals.”

“Fiske probably knows you flipped though, Kim.”

“Flipped,” she repeats with a raised eyebrow.

“You keep repeating me as I’m some dunderhead,” Hank groans. “It’s passive aggressive.”

“Well,  _ Flipped _ is kind of inaccurate” Kim snaps back. “I’m not a villain—”

“—no, but you’re a criminal. Villains  _ know _ that, they talk about it. You even walking into the Bermuda Triangle is something that circulates in our newsletters, c’mon Kim. You have to know this.”

She shakes her head.

“Damn, you’re surface level,” Hank bows his head and shakes it.

She feels bad. Kim knows that she’s avoided looking into a lot of the villain subculture for good reason, but in this moment it makes her look really green. “So you think Fiske would take me. I mean, what if Global Justice found out that I—”

“How many agents at Global Justice are squeaky clean?” Hank shrugs. “A lot of GJ agents are former mercenaries who just want a steady gig.”

Kim bites her lip, thinking. “No, it still doesn’t work.”

She gets out of her chair and starts pacing. 

“Why?” Hank snaps. “Possible, it’s a simple operation—”

Kim ignores that and looks back at Hank, piercing gaze very intentional on her part. “Tell me about Team Go. Are they on our hitlist?”

“Hitlist? Don’t be so morbid—”

“Are they?”

He hesitates. “Yes.”

Kim doesn’t really want to know why, and just  _ trusts _ that Drakken has good reason to not want Team Go around any longer..

“Okay, so that’s a problem too,” Kim explains. “If I’m with Fiske, I’m against Team Go. I know I can’t even take Shego in a fight right now, maybe with Fiske I could, but Hego, Mego,  _ and _ the Wegos? No, not happening.”

“So what do you suggest, oh wise one?” he drawls.

“Don’t get lippy with me.”

Kim crosses her arms, thinking seriously. She needs to fly solo and she needs to destroy the ruby. Worst case scenario, Fiske gets it. Second worst scenario is Team Go takes the ruby, prompting another heist. Third worst is Kim succeeds in the theft, but Team Go finds out who she is, and they mark her as a permanent foe.

Seriously a really bad time to not have Shego for this caper.

“What are the odds…” Kim’s voice trails off for a moment. “...that we can use this ruby to take Team Go’s powers away?”

Hank raises an eyebrow, possibly waiting for Kim to crack a smile to say she’s kidding. And when she doesn’t, he leans back. “That’s… ambitious. Ordinarily, we don’t have the resources to move so fast.”

“You have me,” Kim grins. “I am the best resource you’ll ever get.”

Finally, Hank cracks a genuine smile. “Okay, that’s a good line. So you’re Fiske’s bodyguard, maybe you have a fake ruby you swap with the real one—”

“No, I’m not Fiske's bodyguard in this,” Kim explains. “I want to work with Team Go, if you can set me up with them. I’ll betray them, no prob. They’re pretty dumb, I know I can pull it off.”

Hank nods along. “This is interesting.”

Kim smiles, she’s interested too. This is getting the gears in her head turning, and that sparks her adrenaline. That makes her Kim Possible.

“I make it seem like I’m working with Team Go to get the ruby, that way it’s four less bodies to watch for early in,  _ and _ I get the team I need to work this.” 

Hank is really smiling now. “You are a gift, truly. Keep talking.”

Kim’s eyebrows shoot up. Getting a compliment so high from Hank Perkins is not easy, she bets.“Can you get Shego to set the meet?”

He smiles back and pulls out his phone. “I’ll give it my best shot. Let’s talk through this idea of yours before I make the call, I have some questions…”

She leans in and claps her hands together in a fast rhythm. “Shoot.”

* * *

It’s so bizarre being out of New York City. She honestly hasn’t left it in like… a year maybe. Considering she used to travel the world on the reg, it’s odd for her to be so disoriented. 

Because of the condensed timeline, Kim had to check a rapid bullet train out to Illinois within an hour of speaking with Hank to meet the Go Bros. out in Go City, up high in Go Tower.

Go Go Go.

Talk about on-the-nose branding. 

Go Tower is adorned in relics from the past. Tattered uniforms, old supervillain weapons. It makes her think of like lairs you’d see in a 1960’s superhero movie. Go Tower itself is a relic of an era long since past, and a shrine to its creators, the Gods that rule over the city. Hego treats it like it’s a museum, walking Kim through like he’s a tour guide.

“I’m ok on the history,” Kim snaps after it gets to be a little much. It’s difficult to conceal her resentment. From her understanding, Team Go has done nothing but escalate crime in their own city. They  _ attract _ the villains and it’s so counter productive. 

Crime might not even be a  _ thing _ if society weren’t so invested in giving more and more power to the status quo by creating imaginary villains, like calling peaceful protesters rioters. Poor and desperate people have enough problems, they don’t need new gods disempowering them so they can flex more.

Kim is so thankful Shego left these clowns.

The five of them sit at the official Go City meeting table, where Kim takes Shego’s dusty old seat. She notes that this bothers Hego, who was dragging a  _ different chair _ over for her to sit in. As if Shego will ever return to her brothers.

“See, we as Team Go,” Hego explains. “Feel that this is our responsibility. The ruby should have been kept in our vault. But alas, it is being auctioned so we must prevent it from being purchased.”

Kim raises an eyebrow. “Why not just destroy it?” 

Hego goes into some dumb explanation about how it’s  _ important to remember the past _ , and Mego breaks into these awful snickers that even get Kim giggling.

“It’s fine,” Kim waves him off when she’s had enough, flashing glances at Mego constantly. “My priority is to make sure that it doesn’t fall into Fiske’s hands, without people getting hurt. I’m guessing your strategy is to come in, beat people up, and take the ruby, right?”

“Exactly,” Hego points out without any sense of self-awareness.

“Yeah, so that’s an issue,” Kim kicks her feet onto the table, hands clenched at her waist. She stretches like she doesn’t care. “My thought is we work together. Let Fiske buy the ruby, and then we confront him to prove its authenticity by running a test on one of you in exchange for money. The auction dealers think it’s just an ordinary ruby after all.”

“Team Go does not do money exchanges or deals with criminals,” you-can-guess-who says.

Kim rolls her eyes. “It’s just something to convince him that we’re doing this in good faith.”

No one says anything, and Hego is dead focused on Mego for some reason. Kim looks and sees Mego rocking back and forth, apparently in deep thought.

“No offense, KimKim,” Mego shakes his head. “But Fiske doesn’t want our powers, he wants—”

* * *

“—Stoppable’s powers,” Hank finishes. “It’s his M.O.”

Kim knows Hank is 100% right, but she doesn’t want that to be the case. Hell, she can’t  _ afford _ for it to be the case. “True, but it’s just a one time trade. It’ll be clear that these are powers he will _ not _ be taking for good.”

Hank taps his forehead. “Get into the mind of a supervillain, Possible. Big time villains don’t settle, at least the ones I coach. If I were Fiske, I would want Stoppable on a platter and plan to—”

* * *

“—double cross us by taking the powers for good,” Mego explains. “I know it’s fuckin’ stupid but it’s—”

Hego raises a finger into the air. “—the common superhero/archfoe dynamic.”

“Yeah,” Mego crosses his arms. “But you didn’t hear  _ me _ call it that.”

Kim feels kind of cornered. She  _ really _ does not want to bring in Ron. It’s not safe for her. She tries to be aloof, “I don’t even think that ruby will work on Ron, honestly. It seems too easy.”

“I mean,” Hego leans back, clicking his tongue like Kim is some kind of amateur. “Why else would he be buying the ruby?”

Damn. That’s true. Fiske is desperate and has his eyes on the prize. Therefore…

“Fine,” Kim snips. “I’ll bring in Ron.”

* * *

“We can’t bring in Ron,” Kim groans, slumped over her jeans. 

“Why?” Hank asks. “Aren’t you two—”

“—broken up,” she interrupts. “And it’s not a happy story, we aren’t… on good terms. I really can’t get into it.”

Hank holds up a hand. “Say no more. But Stoppable is Fiske’s endgame. Our best chance to pull this off is with you bringing Stoppable into facilitate. I’m sorry to say..”

Kim falls back, tilting the front legs of her chair off the floor, muttering to herself. 

“Deep fakes,” she snaps her fingers and points at Hank’s chest.

Hank raises an eyebrow very high. “Okay, maybe you should start giving me some context as to why you’re so reluctant to bring him in.”

“Because it’s not—” she clenches her fist and barely restrains herself. “—it’s my one ask, Hank. Please.”

“Okay, fine. So elaborate on what you mean by  _ deep fakes _ so I can explain to you why that won’t work.” 

God, he is insufferable. “You deep faked my voice earlier during the last op, or like, someone did, and it tricked Betty, clearly deep faking works,” Kim says. “We use deep fake tech to create both a mask and voice for me to use. That way I can pretend to be Ron, we fake some pyrotechnics to make it look like I’m losing my powers and—”

“No,” Hank interrupts.

Kim is definitely screaming into her pillow when she gets home. “Why?”

* * *

“I’m glad you understand, Kim,” Hego is so just so smug. “A supervillain cannot resist the draw of their archfoe. It’s what truly prevents them from taking over the world.”

“Or from saving it because you’re too busy tracking down your own archfoes,” Kim mutters.

“Huh?” Hego scratches his head. “What was that?”

“Nothing,” Kim looks up, a little renewed. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. Fiske will be mesmerized by Ron being there.”

* * *

“Keep in mind, Possible,” Hank points out. “If you were to do this, you would need to  _ be _ Ron. You’d have to walk like him, talk like him, and just encompass everything he is. Anything that is  _ slightly _ off, Fiske will notice because he’s  _ obsessed _ with the boy. Everything will fall to pieces”

Kim droops her arms. God, this sucks. Why does it have to be Ron? She just can’t. She can’t ever talk to him again. Coming to him on her hands and knees, begging for his help… it would put her in such a submissive position. She’s sure he’d take the chance to beat her again. 

“So I bring in Ron,” Kim kicks the floor, body moving harder and faster than it should be. “If we bring in Ron,  _ I _ need protection. From him. No questions asked, understood.”

Hank sizes her up, eyes glassy. She has a feeling he can read between the lines. “Abso—”

* * *

“—lutely!” Hego cries out with mirth, reaching over the table for Kim’s hand, realizes that the table is too big for that, and scrambles around to meet besides Kim.

“So,” Mego jams his cheek into his fist. “You fake the power transfer, and in Fiske’s hubris we jump him. That it?”

Kim ignores Hego while he bobs her hand up and down. “Yeah. I’ll confront Fiske after the auction and set up the deal. This gives us some time. It needs to go down immediately though, so I’ll need you in NYC day-of the auction.”

“Ooh!” the Wegos, now in their late teens like Wade, high five each other. “We get to ride the train. Ooh, should we take it with Ron?”

Kim flinches. “What? With Ron?”

Mego gives Kim a look. “I mean, one could guess Ron could board the same train as us from Colorado. He’s a cool guy, I’m down to clown with him.”

She nervously pushes some hair behind her ear. “I’ll… talk to him about that. No promises, heh. He might just like, teleport or something, you know, times is so hard and all that.”

“Dude,” Mego palms at the air. “Fuggedaboutit. We’ll buy him a ticket.”

God, they’re pushy.

Kim fakes the smile of a lifetime. “I’ll talk to him.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! I just wanted to mention that I have a new fic up, called "[A Radicalization of the Teen Hero](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27311380/chapters/66729202)" It's similarly in thematics to this story, where it's about a Kim who goes down a bloody path as an eco terrorist after getting radicalized by Drakken & Shego. Just to frontload, it's not Kigo or anything, Drakken and Shego actually adopt Kim as their daughter in Chapter 2. I'm really proud of this story, and I'm sad that within 24 hrs of posting, it only had 9 hits whereas that new gross story where Kim fucks her Dad had over 100 like whaaaat. Anyways, thanks for reading.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kim makes a deal with Montgomery Fiske.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, Katrina here. Before you read, I'm publishing this chapter on November 3rd, Election Day. But this is relevant for the whole week. Below is a safety checklist:
> 
> This is a safety checklist I found: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KcQmN0ZnSldZfFo_TW5zOXpp1nx9CYlUwvnrfezzrNQ/edit 
> 
> Alt-right militia have threatened shooting people if Biden wins, and they will probably follow through. Regardless of what happens. Police will definitely back them if it goes down. Above safety checklist is a good check/inventory of where you're at and what you need to be safe. : ) Check it out even if you aren't planning on hitting the streets.

“Someone’s happy,” Kim chirps from the shadows. She steps out into the hallway, blocking Montgomery Fiske’s exit from the building. He has just acquired the precious ruby that will help him take over the world (possibly, who’s to say right now?) His smile is almost infectious.

“Kim Possible,” Fiske chides so smoothly. He holds the ruby in hand, eyes gleaming. It’s odd to see him as a human once again. Then again, it’s also odd to see him alive at all, considering when she last saw him he got turned into a rock. Apparently, he’s blended back into the human world and become something of a warmonger and arms’ dealer. “I’m assuming you’re here to take the ruby that I just paid 500 thousand dollars for?”

His personal assistant, Bates, grips Fiske by the arm. “Sir, I don’t think we should engage with brats such as Kim Possible!”

“Silence, Bates,” Fiske snarls. “Take a walk.”

Bates harumphs and wanders off. 

“Not at all.” Kim crosses her arms, sizing Fiske up. “I want to make a deal with you. You need to authenticate that ruby actually does anything before you get to work, yeah?”

Fiske raises an eyebrow. “You are of no interest to me there, you’re powerless and—”

He brushes past her as if he’s some kind of celebrity evading the paparazzi.

“I can bring you Ron Stoppable.”

Fiske stops dead in his tracks. “Excuse me?”

Kim smirks, eying the ruby. “Who’s to say that what you own isn’t a fake?” She pulls a ruby from behind her blazer; it’s an exact replica of what Fiske holds. It’s the size of a grapefruit and very sharp. She snatches Fiske’s ruby away and juggles them into the air. “You never know—”

“Stop that!” he growls, capturing the right one before he loses track of it. “That’s not funny, I don’t appreciate your childish antics.”

“Nor do I,” Kim keeps herself coy and cold, doing her best to emulate Shego. “And Stoppable doesn’t want you to bother him with a fake ruby. So here’s what we are offering you. You meet us tonight. Alone. We do a quick authentication. Ruby’s good? You give the powers back. Easy.”

Fiske snorts. “Ha, I’m not going to give the powers back if you’ll so readily give them to me.”

“Yes you will,” she stands her ground. “This is in good faith. Imagine how _ boring _ it would be to deceive us right then and there. I know you, Monty. You like cat and mouse, you want your victory to be historic. You want to humiliate Ron, and I want you to challenge him. He wants you to as well. So you won’t cheat because you’d never live it down.”

Fiske almost seems flattered. “Go on.” 

“You’ll pay the bank account I give you one million dollars, and in return you get a quick buzz of what it will be like once you finally best Ron and fulfill your destiny or whatever.”

Fiske stands there, bouncing on the balls of his feet while thinking this over. “How do I know this isn’t a trap?”

Kim nods towards the shadows she came from and sidles over. She presses herself into the wall and lets him stand over her. 

“You’ve heard of my recent endeavors?” she asks.

“Nothing specific,” Fiske sniffs. “Perhaps a rumor or two that you are a criminal now.”

“Yeah, and I’m looking to get rich quick,” Kim says. “I’m not on good terms with Ron, but he’s willing to do this with me. In fact, I won’t even be there. For your comfort. It’ll just be you and Ron, in a room. Doing an exchange. It’s really that simple, Monty.”

“A million dollars is pretty steep when I just paid half that to even get—”

“But you _ have _ a million,” Kim assures him. “And you’ll know what’s possible.”

Fiske’s face scrunches up and finally he takes her hand, shaking it firmly. “It’s a deal. Where and when?”

* * *

Ron Stoppable is not safe to work with. It’s clear to all associated parties from the moment he passes through the door that he’s not the same clown he used to be. There’s this unsettling edge to him, that even gives Montgomery Fiske the willies.

The two men stand across in each other in a dilapidated building that was never quite finished. It’s concrete walls with no paint, a plain birch floor, and almost entirely bare. 

Ron’s formerly round face now has several hard edges. His skin is darkened by the constant influx of stubble, his gaze dark. He doesn’t fidget, he stands still in his cool guy leather jacket, hands in his pockets. He’s more like the bullies that stole his lunch money than the boy who risked his life countless times for Kim. 

Unbeknownst to Fiske though, Team Go is also present. Sealed up in a metal box directly behind Ron, veiled by ugly white curtains that appear to be set up for another unfinished project. They are the ones at the control panel. 

Ron arches an eyebrow at Fiske, regarding him like a mother looks at her five year old in their first Halloween costume. “Yo, Monkey. It has been a long time, huh? Surprised you’ve been schemin’ to jack my monkey powah for so long.”

Ron’s attitude could easily fuck up the whole operation, but it is regrettably true that he’s a necessary piece; Fiske was hesitant enough to move forward with the deal. 

“Stoppable,” Fiske snarls, nostrils flaring wide. “It’s been a long time.” 

“God, you’re so boring,” Ron shakes his head, and puts on a snooty English accent. “ _ Stoppable, eh wot? It’s been a long time, innit? _ You’re such a loser, bro.”

“Sure,  _ man _ ,” Fiske passes the ruby over to Ron like it’s a basketball.

Ron catches it and holds it to his chest, humming silly songs loudly to himself. Seconds pass by and nothing happens. 

* * *

Meanwhile, inside the control room, the Go Bros. are freaking out. Good thing it’s soundproof.

Ron is supposed to say  _ Booyah _ as a signal to kick on the special effects to trick Monty. But he’s just standing there doing nothing.

“What the fuck is that lunatic doing?” Mego hisses. “He knows we’re waiting for the fucking—”

“Don’t say that word, Mego,” Hego shakes his head. “It’s unbecoming.”

Mego flashes him a look. “—signal, also fuck you, Hego. Do we do the effects or not?”

“I think we should wait,” the Wegos say together.

Mego adjusts his domino mask from all the sweat. 

* * *

Fiske stamps the floor like a child. “Bloody fucking Hell! I am  _ not _ paying my fee for—”

Fiske freezes when he sees Ron laughing, and draws back, confused. “What on God’s green earth is so funny, Stoppable?!”

Ron wipes a tear from his eye. “Bro, you’re so dense.” He holds the ruby up. “This shit? It’s a fake. KP actually swiped you earlier, you dumbass.”

Ron carelessly tosses the ruby up and over his shoulder. It flies and falls into the ‘construction project’ behind him, clattering to the metal floor of the control room. But because of the soundproof room, there’s no sound of the ruby hitting anything. Almost like it just vanished from reality. 

Fiske’s eyebrow arches, because he’s not a fool. A ruby that heavy should have made a sound. He looks back to Ron, grinding his teeth together. He shakes it off and crosses his arms.“Where’s. My. Ruby.”

“Amp down,” Ron pulls out the actual ruby and holds it high. “This is the real deal. I still want my mil, dumbass. We’re just fuckin’ with ya. Chill.”

“Chill,” Fiske repeats, shaking his head and clicking his tongue. “Fine. I’ll try  _ chilling _ .”

* * *

“ I swear to God, he’s looking right at us,” Mego moans, making eye contact through the veil with Fiske. “Hego, can you be faster on the uptake? Dude fucking knows he’s getting played now. The fuck is wrong with Ron, he’s such a fucking asshole.”

“Stop saying the F word,” Hego leans in. “Wegos, you ready on Ron’s signal?”

“Yessir!” they say together.

* * *

Ron holds the real ruby in both hands, and howls a wonderful “Booyah!” this time. The Go Bros. fiddle with the controls and shit starts happening. Unseen vents between the wood paneled floor blow air up at Ron, making his clothes flutter. From those same vents, blue smoke rises, consuming the boy. With the sound effects of magic crackling paired with it, it’s decent enough that Fiske is mesmerized. 

It’s what Fiske  _ wants _ after all, and people will always see what they want, and not what’s there.

“Woo!” Ron decrees as he pulls the ruby away, eying Fiske warily. “What a rush, you’re gonna love it, Monkey. But first, the money.”

“Yes, yes, quite,” Fiske anxiously stoops over his laptop, setting up the transfer. He turns the computer to face Ron so he can see it wire through the account. “Just a few seconds, Stoppable. Hehe. Oh, how I’ve looked _ forward  _ to this.”

“I can tell, dude,” Ron smirks. “You always green with envy towards me.”

“It was my destiny, Stoppable,” Fiske says. “You got in my way.”

“Tsch,  _ destiny _ ,” Ron snorts. “If it was destiny, I’m still the one who got the powers—fuck it, money looks like it just passed. You ready to get a quick bump off me?”

Fiske’s voice quakes. “Yes. Please.”

“Dope,” Ron smiles, tossing the ruby up and down a few times. “One quick thing though. Oh Kim!”

Fiske furrows his brow. “I was told we would be alone.”

“Well, you’re not,” Ron grins.

* * *

Mego is straight panicking now. “Yo, we gotta fuckin’ bail.”

Hego grabs Mego by both shoulders. “Mego, stop! You’re behaving like a child. Saying the F-word like that, my God.”

“Trust Ron, Mego,” the Wegos chime in.

“But none of this is scripted!” Mego screams at the two of them. “Dude keeps doing shit that isn’t—”

“Mego, you’re echoing.”

“—scripted and what do you mean I’m echoing? We’re soundproofed you stupid fuck—” Mego pauses, and _ does  _ hear the echo in the entire room. “Wait, what is—”

* * *

The white curtains rise up into the air, revealing the steel box room that unfolds like a toy, leaving the four Go Bros. standing stupidly in front of the control panel, with Hego holding the fake ruby.

“Oh,” Fiske grits his teeth. “You set me up. I should’ve known Team Go would want to secure the ruby.”

“Lolz,” Ron shakes his head, tittering. “This plan is so fucking stupid, I’m just running my own show now. We need one last authentication, asshole.”

Ron’s smile just grows wider and wider. The Go Bros. stand still, absolutely petrified of what is going on.

“Possible assured me this was all in good faith,” Fiske blinks, searching the room for Kim “She lied to me, God. You already have what you want, Stoppable, you have my funds, give me the ruby—”

“Nah,” Ron glances over his shoulder. “One final authentication. Trust me. Go Bros. Take that ruby together and show Fiske it’s a fake.”

“How?” Hego stumbles.

“Hold the fucking thing like I just did,” Ron snaps, turning to Fiske with such smugness. “Now.”

The Go Bros. do so. They hold it aloft, and it gleams under the ugly fluorescent lighting, glowing brighter and brighter until it sparks a red flash. Hego, Mego, and the Wegos fall to their knees, flanked in auras matching their uniforms. Blue, purple, and red light that flows from their bodies and streams into the ruby, the sheer force of their superpowers plowing into the ruby knocking it over onto its side. 

“Oops,” Ron purses his lips. “Guess the first ruby was the real one after all.” 

He snaps his fingers and the control panel pops open, and a wave of white knockout gas covers the brothers in a mist and they don’t get up for the rest of the night. 

“Wait,” Fiske catches up far too slowly. “But… your powers! I saw them, you gave your power to the ruby so hand it over!”

Ron cackles softly. 

“What’s so funny,” Fiske winces. 

The laughter goes full throttle, he howls like he did back in his Attitudinated days, and then all of a sudden he goes deathly quiet, pulling a slim looking gun from his blazer, pointing it at Fiske’s chest.

Fiske’s hands jump to the air and he nearly trips over himself. “Don’t shoot! W-w-w-wait… why are you using a gun?”

“Oh my God, you still haven’t figured it out,” Ron laughs again, and grips his own jaw, tearing his fist up. His skin peels away for a moment, until ripping off entirely, rebounding like rubber. Because it’s a mask. 

‘Ron’ drops the mask to the floor, and looks to Fiske with stoic, green eyes.

“ _ Kim Possible _ !” Fiske shrieks. 

Kim nods at him, red hair plastered to her face in sweat. With her free hand, she knocks it away and with zero hesitation, shoots Fiske in the chest.

Thankfully for him, it’s just a dart loaded with a sleeping poison that knocks him out immediately. He falls flat on the floor. 

Kim smiles to herself and radios in, “Mission accomplished.”


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kim gets compromised.

Kim doesn’t feel very good. Sure, everything with Fiske went fine, but… it hurt her so much. To be like  _ him.  _ She had to spend so much time practicing her best Ron, she had to study him and learn who he was again… and now he’s back in her nightmares, cackling as he hits her over and over and over again. All just to steal a dumb ruby.

She shakes when she’s alone, jaw clenched so tight she wakes up with migraines. She was Ron Stoppable for only five minutes, and it destroyed her. Because it was  _ easy _ . Sure it took effort, but she could start again right now. She still has remnants of his speech patterns in her. He’s a poison.

She feels so feeble, like it wasn’t even the real deal and she’s traumatized all over again.

But duty calls. She has to  _ work _ and she’s been asked to visit a video rental store just before they close.

She struts in, tightening her scarf as she surveys the area.. It’s surprising to see one of these joints still exists in this day and age, what with streaming services and everything. But there isn’t really anything here for her; she’s positive her laptop doesn’t even have a drive for CDs in it.

So she browses, fingers brushing plastic covers while waiting for the signal. Movies used to be cool, she’d watch movies with Ron as a distraction from her real life. Where things aren’t so complicated, where cops are bad because they take bribes, not because they kill people of color routinely. That sort of thing.

Even across the planet, Kim and Ron could Skype and watch stuff. Now she has a hard time focusing on anything but the real world, no matter how tempting it might be to leave.

“Looking for something in particular, ma’am?”

Kim turns to see an old, bald man with kind eyes staring right at her. “Yeah, I’m looking for something that you wouldn’t find on the shelves.”

A sparkle in his eye, he motions for her to follow him. “Well then you won’t find it on our shelves haha, you could’ve just asked me.” His hand digs under the counter below the register and plucks out a VHS tape. “Can’t let you take it out, but you can watch it in there.” He winks, and flicks his head towards what looks to be a soundproof glass box with a black curtain.

Kim nods and sets herself up inside, clicking  _ Play _ when she’s ready. 

_ “Greetings Miss Possible, your success with Montgomery Fiske has helped us a great deal. _ ”

Projects of Nevada and Las Vegas appear on the screen while the female narrator continues. _ “He has given us information that Jack Hench is wrapping up his designs on a brand new Attitudinator.” _

It shows her security camera footage of Ron being zapped by the Attitudinator a few years back, when he went straight evil and almost actually won. _ “With it, it will be simple for Hench to turn good people into bad ones, and to eliminate anyone who stands in his path by reversing their polarity. _ ”

Kim sighs. She can already tell where this is going. Her mission, if she chooses to accept it, will be to...

“... _ destroy it. It has been decided that the best way to infiltrate Hench Co. is to pose as someone who could be flipped into a villain. Someone like yourself, Miss Possible. _ ”

Kim groans. She hates needing to flaunt her identity like this. It’s not what she wants. She wants to do missions anyone can do, not ones that count on her being the girl she is still trying to escape. Besides, she’s already arrived at the point of essentially killing someone. The Attitudinator probably wouldn’t make her a ‘villain.’

This is ill conceived, and she’s tired.

“ _ Your mission, should you choose to accept it _ —”

Click.

Everything goes black and Kim neatly places the headset onto the table, wondering if the recording will still self-destruct in the next few seconds. She gets up, slides the glass door open, and makes eye contact with the old man. Shuts the glass behind her. 

“Sorry, not for me. Thanks for trying.”

Kim brushes past him, peeking back at the soundproof booth to see the VCR smoking. 

* * *

It’s a dark November night, and it’s very chilly. Snowed this morning, melted in the afternoon, but still… snow. 

Midterms are coming up, and Kim has missed so many classes that she is about to flunk out if she doesn’t get it together. It’s been a week since Fiske, and a day since she turned down the mission at the movie rental place.

No one has said anything to her just yet. She’s not sure how truthful that  _ should you choose to accept it _ bit is. She’s hoping it’s legit because she doesn’t regret walking out.

“Yo,” a sharp voice says from around the street corner. 

Kim looks to the source of the voice, and despite her aggravation, her heart flutters. “Shego.”

Shego smirks with a bit of hesitance, dolled up in a dark green peacoat and black scarf. “Coffee?”

Kim frowns. It’s late but she shrugs, bumping up against Shego’s side, and touches Shego’s palm. Doesn’t feel like anything when Kim’s skin is covered, so she slips off her woolen glove and places her hand back in. “Heat me up,” she smirks.

Shego’s palm radiates a gentle warmth and they crash into a nearby diner. Mostly empty. Shego gets coffee, Kim gets chamomile. 

“Late night?” Kim asks. “You working?”

“No,” Shego sighs, unusually calm. “I’m just adjusting to the timezone thing, I was in Europe for so long. You uh, holding up okay?”

“Midterms are coming up, so I’m a little stressed,” Kim admits.

“Oh. Anything else… on your mind that you, uh, might want to talk about?”

Shego gulps down a swig of coffee, closing her eyes at the bitterness of the brew.

“No offense Shego,” Kim whispers. “But Hank is my handler. I don’t want our… thing to be like, professional.”

“Well, Hank sucks at handling you, Kim,” Shego smirks. “He’s a little pissed at you, not gonna lie.”

“Why?” Kim wishes Hank would just tell her directly. “I gave them what they wanted and more. Fiske, the ruby, a million dollars, and Team Go can’t remember a thing because of the memory gas I used. They’ll probably never figure out how they lost their powers.”

“Yeah.” Shego looks a little glum. “Who would’ve thought the  _ esteemed _ Team Go would fall to Kim Possible of all people.” 

“Wait, I’m confused,” Kim starts. Is Shego pissed at her for backstabbing her brothers? Kim figured Shego hated them and—

“ _ Don’t _ ,” Shego hisses. “I knew what you were doing, Princess, it’s fine. They’re just… still family. It feels weird, um, but no, I mean, Hank is thrilled you went so far beyond, he’s just upset you lied to him.”

Oh. “About bringing in Ron,” she says flatly.

“Yeah.”

Kim doesn’t really know what to say, so she drinks her tea. But Shego doesn’t make an effort to interrupt the silence, leaving the ball in Kim’s court still.

“Ron’s not… safe, to be around anymore,” Kim says. “The breakup was pretty bad, Shego. I don’t feel comfortable getting into it right now.”

“You’ve mentioned, I’m sorry if I’m being pushy,” Shego sighs.

The spark is kinda dead. Between that night in the hotel and today, it’s just not there anymore. Kim likes Shego a lot, but something about working with her like this is getting in the way. 

“It wasn’t easy for me,” Kim continues. “Hank told me it was impossible to do the mask and voice print thing. I had to watch footage of Ron, and listen to voicemails he left me just to… you know, perform as him. It really messed with my head, he’s… he’s not a good person anymore, Shego.”

There’s this glassy look in Shego’s eyes, and Kim can almost see what Shego is about to ask her before she even says it.

“That night you checked my body in the museum,” Kim explains. “You touched my thigh and… it was kind of a trigger. It wasn’t Ron, it was some other dude, but like, let’s just say I have a few more spots that I can’t handle people touching.”

Shego nods with so much understanding. “I had no idea, sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Kim looks back to her tea. She just takes it straight, but she needs something to do with her hands so she fiddles with a packet of sugar, emptying it over her napkin. “I never told anyone about what was going on with Ron and me, because I was trying to protect him… which was stupid. There were a lot of red flags and I don’t know, it’s just kinda frustrating.”

Shego leans back, sort of amused. “Go off, Kimmie.”

“Thanks,” Kim says softly. “The missions I keep getting assigned are really, like, not for me. It was another one where it was really important that I as  _ Kim Possible, Teen Hero _ do. Like the plan wouldn’t work for anyone else—”

“—and you moved to NYC for a reason,” Shego smiles.

“Yes!” Kim lights up. “Exactly, thank you for understanding that. God, you’re so perceptive sometimes.”

“I try,” Shego shrugs, the bags under her eyes very noticeable. “I think we’ve both chilled out a lot, Kimmie. Makes it easier to listen.”

“Yeah,” Kim looks back at her tea. She feels so much for Shego but she can’t think of anything to talk about. Maybe if they went to Shego’s place, or Kim’s place, they could connect better. This is so dry. “You’ll be up for a while, you want some company?”

Shego’s eyes flit up with some light to them, like she’s actually considering it. “No, I think I should ship out. You too. You said you got midterms, right?”

“Y-yeah,” Kim sighs. This isn’t going her way at all. “I do. Well, um, thanks for talking to me, Shego.”

Shego smiles in a way that is so obviously fake. “Sure thing, Princess.”

* * *

Another week passes on and Kim feels like she’s in some kind of bottle episode. Just school and home life. It doesn’t make sense to her that she is anxious because this is her regular life. She did this for a long time. Now, she’s done like, what? Three or four missions and all of a sudden she’s rattling the cage. She turned down her last mission, and no one has made her an offer since. 

That’s on her.

Kim leans up against a tree, sitting on the roots, in Central Park, when she calls her mother. It’s about 3pm and unless something has changed, that’s the time Mom usually gets to go home on Thursdays. 

“ _ Hi Kim _ ,” Anne says breathlessly. “ _ I just got off work; It’s really good to hear from you. _ ”

“Hey Mom,” Kim says with so much restraint. “Long time no see. It’s been a minute.”

“ _ It sure has _ .”

They catch up for a few minutes. School, work, the Tweebs, new things going on in Middleton, etc. Kim gets distracted at one point, focusing on the random passersby instead of what she’s actually saying. “Hey,” Kim interrupts herself, she was talking about some annoying people in one of her classes. “I wanted to talk to you about Thanksgiving.”

Thanksgiving is next week, and it’s been weighing on Kim’s mind for some time now.

“I’m sorry I’ve been distant lately,” Kim groans. She actually hasn’t seen her parents for a year now. Usually, she’d visit over summer break but this time she picked up a job to excuse herself from going back to Middleton. “I’ve been going through a lot. Um.”

Anne is unusually quiet; it’s like she knows something.

“Ron and I broke up,” Kim says, and it might be the first time she’s told someone and it  _ didn’t  _ make her feel very emotional. It makes Kim feel strong. 

“ _ Yeah _ ,” Anne hums. “ _ Uh, Ron mentioned it to us actually a few weeks ago _ .”

Kim blinks a few times. “Wh-what? He… told you?”

“ _ Yeah, actually, we see Ron a lot lately, _ ” Anne says. “ _ He’s been lonely I guess, so he pretty much comes over for dinner every night just like he did in high school _ .”

Feels like an absolute gut punch. Kim was ready to tell Anne the truth, like  _ all _ of it. But now… he’s still part of the family?

“What… what did he say?” Kim asks.

“ _ He said you two just mutually agreed— _ ” Kim snorts. “ _ —one day that it wasn’t working. Sometimes, he rants a little bit about how he feels you lead him on, which I don’t think is appropriate. But I don’t know, I… I think, Kimmie, I probably would have done the same _ .”

“Done what?” she asks. This is starting to get really scary. Ron needs to stay away from her family.

“ _ Well, you probably knew it wasn’t working for a while, right? _ ”

Kim shuffles about nervously. “Yeah. At first I thought it was the missions, and then I thought it was Middleton. New York is nice, I guess. I’m… ok. Um, if I can be honest though, Mom…”

Kim stops talking. Her skin crawls. What if Ron is listening in on this with his powers? Would he do that? Is Ron seeing her parents in good faith or bad faith? He likes to play games with her head, and this might be one.

“...I don’t want to talk about specifics on the phone,” Kim sighs. “I’ll see you guys for Thanksgiving but I would really appreciate it if… um… you stopped letting Ron come over.”

Another long pause, and Kim braces herself. She keeps talking, a little faster now. “I can tell him to stop if that’s—”

“ _ Kimmie, what happened? _ ” Anne interrupts. “ _ Was it not a mutual breakup _ ?”

Thank God, she’s picking up on the fact that Ron lied to her face about him and Kim.

“I know it’s hard to accept because like, you’ve been seeing him more than me,” Kim explains. “But it wasn’t mutual, and he keeps texting me. He won’t stop, he’s acting like… like… he can win me over or something.”

“ _ He mentioned that a little, _ ” Anne admits. “ _ I told him to stop as well _ .”

“Thanks, Mom—”

“— _ but he did stop, at least that’s what he said he’d do, and he said he’s been texting you other stuff now. _ ”

“Oh. Uh, I wouldn’t know. I started deleting his messages the second I get them a while back.”

“ _ Oh. That bad, huh? _ ”

“Y-yeah…” Kim frowns. This really sucks. If Ron just stayed away, she could have gotten anything with not needing to explain what’s actually been going on. “You trust me, right?”

“ _ I’ll admit, it’s a little hard to believe. But you’re my daughter and I don’t think you’d lie to us. _ ”

“Th-th-thanks,” Kim breathes out. “It really means a lot, hey um, I’m gonna call Ron right now and get this over with.”

“ _ You sure, honey?” _

“Yeah, but we’ll talk soon. I’ll be there for Thanksgiving, I promise,” she says and hangs up, making a quick note that she needs to buy train tickets in advance. And then she makes the fated dial to Ron. As usual, he answers almost immediately.

“ _ Hey Kim _ ,” he says pretty dang coldly. It kinda throws Kim off.

It completely throws her off. She’s stunned he’d be so frosty right out of the gate.

“I need you to stop seeing my parents,” Kim says, trying to focus on being strong. “It’s not okay, and—um, you’re uninvited from Thanksgiving! Don’t come to that either.”

Ron chuckles. She thinks she hears explosions in the background. Probably some dumb video game, and then the unmistakable sound of him pausing it. 

“ _ Listen up, I’m not doing that. You broke up with  _ **_me_ ** _ and it’s not fair you get to take stuff away from me _ .”

“Take stuff away from—” she needs to repeat it outloud. Like, how delusional is he to say that? Does he sincerely mean that? “—Ron, they’re my family.”

A pause, and he comes back in, all heated. “Kim,  _ I’ve been seeing them almost every day for weeks! I practically grew up with them. _ ”

“Too bad!” Kim spits, pulling herself to her feet. “Maybe you shouldn’t have hit me.”

She’s never actually said it out loud to him before. His violence has just been an unsaid thing. The most hard Kim had addressed it prior to now was labeling it as Ron having problems he needed to take care of. But she knows he knows about the shelters she stayed at.

It’s just weird for it to all be out in the open after years of silence.

“ _ Fuck you, Kim, I’m going to Thanksgiving. _ ”

“I won’t let you in!” She wishes she could hit  _ him  _ right now. She’s getting good enough to be in actual fights again from the training regime Shego gave her through Hank. But that’d be so fucked, she’s better than him. She won’t resort to violence.

“ _ No, I think you will, or else I’ll out you to your family. _ ”

Kim bites her lip. “They already know I’m bi, Ron, it’s not a big deal—”

“ _ Oh my God, Kim, do you seriously think I don’t know _ ?”

Chilling, the hairs on her neck stand on edge. 

“ _ Okay, fine. Let’s fucking do this right now, Kim,” _ Ron is in full swing now. This is how he is right before he hits her. _ “A few days ago, I’m tryna meditate when I suddenly get a call from Sensei. Dude tells me that you just knocked out Monkey Fist and kidnapped him, after luring him in by impersonating  _ **_me_ ** .”

Oh no. No no no…

“Wh-what? H-h-how do you know that—”

“ _ Sensei keep tabs on the enemies of Yamanouchi, Kim. The fuck were you thinking impersonating me like that, Kim?! _ ”

“I… I had to,” she sighs. Fuck, there goes her cover. She’s probably going to have to do damage control with Hank immediately. “You do not tell  _ anyone _ about this.”

“ _ What, that you’re relapsing and doing missions again? _ ” Ron spits. “ _ And you miss me so bad you have to dress up like me, you fucking bitch.” _

Her cheeks flush. “Don’t you dare call me a—”

_ “Fuck off, Kim, it’s just a joke.” _

Her jaw clenches. “It’s not funny.”

“ _ Tsch, it’s objectively pretty funny, Kim, that you’re like… some kind of mercenary for hire right now. I know about the Team Go shit too. You fucked with the wrong ninja school, Kim _ .”

Great. Just fucking perfect.

“What do you want,” she growls.

“ _ Text your parents that you changed your mind and it’s okay for me to still see them, and I’ll be quiet. I would hate for them to find out why their daughter actually moved to New York City. Are you even in school or is that just a cover _ ?”

Kim buries her face in her hand, squeezing the bridge of her nose. “Fine. I’ll do it. Fuck you too, Ron.”

Click.

Kim’s hand gently falls to the ground, phone caked in sweat now. She sighs, and does as Ron asks, and then heads to the Bermuda Triangle that night.

* * *

Thankfully, Shego is there, and so is Hank. They’re chatting at the bar. They look nice, all spiffy in their nice, expensive suits. Kim is in longjohns, jeans, and a parka. 

“Oh hey,” Hank smiles, cheeks flushed, probably from his margarita. “We were just talking about you.”

Shego wraps an arm around Kim’s shoulders and pulls her in. “What’s up, Kimmie?”

It feels nice to be held by someone who actually likes her. Kim kinda wants to run her hand against Shego’s chest and give her  _ the look _ but business first. Kim turns to Hank and explains what happened with Sensei and Ron. 

“I’ve been compromised,” she finishes.

“Oh,” Hank frowns. “Uh…” He flashes a nervous glance to Shego.

“What?” Kim looks to Shego, incredibly confused now.

“Well…” Shego bites her lip. “...you aren’t really  _ compromised _ like, in a bad way, I guess. It doesn’t really impact  _ us _ , just sucks for you with your ‘rents. Want me to kill him for ya?”

“No,” she sighs quickly, not noticing that Shego was trying to cheer her up with a joke. “But… aren’t we like… top secret?”

“Stopstop doesn’t know about our op really, he just knows that you… you know. It’s more of a personal problem,” Shego says, trying to keep the mood light. “Hank doesn’t really need to know about your—uh, drama with—”

“It’s not drama!” Kim finds herself yelling.

“Whoa, whoa,” Shego backs off, hands in the air. “Sorry I’m drunk, bad choice of words.”

“Yeah, you  _ are _ drunk,” Kim sees Hank’s margarita on the bar and compulsively grabs it, chugging it all in one go, licking away all the salt, and slamming the glass back down. “It’s not drama, he’s… I told you, Shego, he’s an asshole.”

Hank raises an eyebrow, sizing Kim up carefully. “You need to chill out.”

“Excuse me?” Kim spits.

“Hold the phone, Princess,” Shego grabs Kim by the hood. “Let him speak.”

“Yes, please,  _ Princess _ ” Hank almost sneers. “You turned down a mission, and you come here with your antics. I don’t care for it. I’m sorry you got compromised by someone you know, but understand we’re going to kick his ass some day and you’ll feel better afterwards. But you’ll only get to kick his ass for a good reason if you stay on with us.”

“Okaaaaaay,” Shego starts to drag Kim away. “Maaaaaybe I was wrong about Hank having the  _ right  _ thing to say right now.”

Hank crosses his arms. “Don’t boo me, Shego, I’m right. I’m having someone intercept you tomorrow to assign a mission, Possible. Don’t watch for it, it’ll be obvious. Up to you if you want it.”

Kim relaxes under Shego’s grip, thinking. Her mind gets stuck: should she just let her parents know the truth? Since that is apparently a-okay, now. God, it’s hard to focus on anything  _ anyone _ is saying. 

Shego peels off Kim’s jacket, revealing her sweaty flannel button-down. “Hey, hey… yo, I’ll apologize for Hank, how about that?” Shego sends a spiteful look at Hank. “Yo! Hank? Beat it.”

“Whatever,” he drawls.

The exchange makes Kim giggle. She likes watching them be catty bitches to each other.

Shego grabs Kim by both cheeks  _ gently _ and looks into her eyes. “I got you tonight, okay? Let’s have some fun.”

Kim’s mind immediately goes to the gutter. She remembers how Shego burned off everything she wore at once and how fucking  _ hot  _ it was. She would love that right now, even right here. To just be exposed in front of everyone, and to then be dominated by the woman who gets it. 

“Fun?” Kim repeats dimly.

“Yeah,  _ fun,”  _ Shego grins. “Yo Eddie! Lucre! Get the fuck away from that pool table, it’s mine and Princess’, you got it?!” 

She looks back to Kim and takes her hand.

This works too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can [follow me on Twitter](https://twitter.com/IAmLordMeatwad) for tweets about my cats and fanfic, and [follow me on Insta](https://www.instagram.com/katrinajagelski/) for similar stuff. Occasionally I do live reads for my original fiction and fanfic.


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Smooch city.

Kim is kicking herself right now, she _ really _ fucked up the start of the mission by getting caught early and now she’s pretty much failed, unless she can cut a one minute sprint in half and leap like ten feet or something wild. She doesn’t really know the logistics, she just knows she has to try.

This is a caper much more up Kim’s alley at least: Falsetto Jones has some kind of nuclear warhead. It’s inside of a helicopter and he’s flying out to some arms dealer. Kim’s role is to intercept and extract the warhead. Now that the intercept has failed, all she can do is extract. 

Jones is on the roof, and running to the rope ladder to his helicopter before it takes off. Kim is two stories below, pounding her way through the legions of goons in her way and honestly it’s going so poorly she gives up. She can’t beat these guys, not in thirty seconds. Plus, she’s still out of shape and her fighting technique is sloppy. So Kim pulls a Ron and just straight up  _ runs _ , parkouring over bodies, using them as platforms to leap up the stairs and go faster. 

Her limbs slam against their joints as hard as possible and she makes it to the iron door. She shoulder checks it open and sees the helicopter pulling away, Falsetto Jones three quarters of the way up the rope ladder. Motherfucker.

**“** **_Kimmie, you gotta get on that ‘copter,_ ** ” Shego radios in.

“I’m working on it,” Kim snaps, hitting a full on sprint across the roof. She hears gunshots, she sees dust blow off the ground around her. But she runs and the helicopter drifts farther away. Really far away. But not so far she shouldn’t try.

So Kim hits the edge of the roof and she leaps. She soars. Her arms move in full circles and she  _ just _ catches onto the final rung of the ladder, swaying back and forth dangerously. She looks up and sees Jones in the copter and looks back to the rooftop that is now — vomit inducingly far away. And she’s hanging like fifteen stories in the air—wait—eighteen now, on the bottom rung of a rope ladder.

“ **_You good_ ** _? _ ” Shego says.

“No,” Kim grits her teeth and reaches up to the second rung. Just one at a time, it’s all she’s got. Grab one and pull. Keep going and hope no one notices she’s on it. Any second, Falsetto Jones could come out with a machete, cut the ladder, and send Kim to Kingdom Come. She needs to move fast, but the velocity pushing against her makes it hard to even move. 

_ Beep beep de-beep. Beep beep de-beep. Beep beep de-beep. _

That’s her ringtone. Fuck. Against her better judgment, she takes the call with one earbud in. She generally does better with these sort of Herculean feats when she’s distracted anyways.

“ _ Kim? I hope this is a good time _ .” It’s her Mom. God dammit.

Kim grunts and pulls herself up another rung, body already exhausted. But she needs to keep pushing it. “I’m fine. What’s up?”

Shego screams in Kim’s other ear, “ **_Are you fucking kidding me, Princess?!_ ** ”

“Let me work,” Kim hisses into the radio, away from the earbud mic. 

“ _ I just wanted to check in with you about Thanksgiving, I mean, it’s in two days. Are you alright? Lots of wind tunnel noise right now. _ ”

Kim freezes for a second. “Oh shit, I forgot about Thanksgiving. Honest to God, Mom. I forgot.”

“ _ Where are you? It’s so loud. _ ”

“It’s good, Mom,” Kim assures her. “I’m fine—” She dimly looks to the left. “—holy shit!” She thrusts herself into the ladder, swaying it one foot upward like a swing, and she just _ barely _ avoids colliding with the spire to a building they are slowly lifting over. “Contrary to that, haha.”

“ _ Honey, I’m a little concerned _ —”

“It’s all good in da hood,” Kim coughs weakly. “Why’d you call? Talk to me.”

_ “ _ **_Princess…_ ** ” Shego sings. “ **_You are fucking KILLING me. You’re about to miss the helipad_ ** _. _ ”

Kim glances down while her mom rambles on and on about things. Truth be told, she is soaring very explicitly over the helipad that Shego is waiting on. Plan was to hijack and land there. 

“Get into a jet,” Kim whispers. “Floor it.”

“— _ what? _ ” Anne asks. “ _ Something’s wrong. Kimmie, are you on some kind of mission? _ ”

“What? Me?” The helicopter’s opening is getting pretty close now. She tries not to look down, but if she did she’d see that she’s leaving the city limits and soaring off to a great grassy plain. “Nooooo.”

“ _ It sounds like you’re grappling off a helicopter’s rope ladder, honey. _ ”

“That’s… specific.

“ _ I mean, I know what that sounds like. I’ve heard you do it before. Remember junior year? _ ”

Kim blinks; she forgot that she  _ has  _ done this before, and it was a lot easier then. “Well, uh, ha, not the case right now. I’m just chilling. Something must be wrong with my phone mic.”

_ “ _ **_Worst. Cover. Ever_ ** _ ,”  _ Shego deadpans.

“ _ Well, erm, anyways, I just wanted to check in with you, _ ” Anne continues. “ _ Ron seems to still be under the understanding that he’s still invited to Thanksgiving, and I know you said you’d call him and I was wondering if _ —”

Kim is so close to the lip of the helicopter that she might be able to jump it. She hesitates. “We did talk, sorry I didn’t tell you, he, um, I think it’s okay. If he comes. And I’ll definitely be there. For sure.”

A long pause. Kim waits anxiously for her mother to just accept that. But her mom is not stupid, and is already leaning onto Kim’s side with this whole tiff.

“ _...Kim if something happened, I don’t want you to feel pressured into letting him come. You can be honest about everything with us, okay? _ ”

“ **_Heads up, you need to jump NOW. Jones just got word you’re on the ladder. Move. Now._ ** ”

Fuck.

“Mom, we’ll talk soon, sorry, gotta go,” Kim grunts and swings her hip, sending the phone flying out of her pocket and hurtling towards the ground. Probably not the best goodbye. 

She scrunches up her limbs and darts up the final two rungs, clinging to the open entrance to the copter, hanging there for a moment and looking in at Falsetto Jones and the driver. Jones gapes and hesitates, taking a full three seconds to pull his gun on her. “H-h-how did you—”

Kim shrugs playfully, then reaches down to her blazer with one hand. She peels it back, revealing a bomb with a digital clock flashing at 01:00:02 which quickly changes to 00:59:45 and so on and so forth. She tilts her head, smirking at Jones. 

She’s too out of breath to explain it but they probably get it. Shoot her and the bomb kills all of them. Give her what she wants and they’re safe. 

Kim is lying about one thing though; this bomb ain’t motion activated. It’d have blown up by now for sure if it was really like that, but Falsetto Jones is too stunned to figure that out. 

Kim spins her finger in a circle and Jones stoops over, grappling for the warhead. It’s pretty fucking big, and it slams against his seat, rusteyand heavy as fuck. Jones looks at her with a conniving grin, like  _ See, idiot. You can’t steal the warhead. It’s too heavy. _

“Closer,” Kim rasps, and gestures at the clock. Twenty seconds and counting.

Jones hurriedly stoops over and knocks the warhead off the seat, and it slams to the metal floor of the helicopter. He heaves deep breaths, that sound funny with his chipmunk voice, pushing it over to him. Kim tries not to focus on him, and keep her eyes on the warhead.

How the fuck is she supposed to do this safely?

“Twenty seconds, Jones,” Kim snaps, trapping the warhead between her feet. That’s not going to work. If she uses her parachute, the warhead will just drag her out of the air. 

...unless… no that’s stupid. There’s no way she can… ugh. 

The things she does to save the world, seriously.

Kim grits her teeth and looks to Jones. She needs him to not chase her, and she would also prefer to not blow him up. 

Ten seconds.

She’s out of time. Make due.

“Jump,” she hisses, before tearing the bomb off herself and hurling it at Jones. He flops backwards, terrified of this thing latching onto his body, and Kim jumps off the helicopter into the open air with the warhead in tow. 

She hears two consecutive quiet  _ ploomph! _ s. Definitely the parachutes going up. Thank God.

Kim moves fast, and tries to ignore the explosion up above when the whole helicopter goes up in flames. Kim clings onto the warhead like a body pillow with one arm, other arm tearing off her backpack. She moves so fast, hair blowing so hard from hitting the air it feels like it might rip off her scalp. 

The ground is getting so close so quickly for a climb that took so long.

But she gets it. Kim gets the backpack secured to the warhead. She gives it a test pull, and it seems safe, so she pulls the string and the parachute bursts out. Immediately, the warhead catches, suspended by the parachute, but Kim loses her grip and flops, gripping onto two tiny metal grooves at the very bottom of the warhead. She feels it slip under her gloves fast. 

“Shit, shit, shit…” She looks down. She’s too high to drop, there’s no way she can hold on long enough to make it down. She’s effed.

“ **_Yo,_ ** ” her radio crackles.  **“** **_Princess, listen up. I’m flying to you. I’m locking on and we’ve got… ten seconds ‘til I pass under. When I say drop, you drop, you got it?_ ** ”

“Y-yeah,” Kim chokes, not even sure if she can hold for a whole ten.

“ _ Five. Four. _ ”

Kim loses her grip with one hand and flails off dangerously, two fingers from her left hand supporting the weight of her entire body on grooves not meant to be held onto.

“ _ Three. Hold On. One.” _

…

“ _ Drop. _ ”

Kim drops and falls, landing in the jet almost immediately, the leather chair giving her intense whiplash. A glass dome closes over her, killing the noise of the air and Shego reaches over, buckling Kim into the chair safely.

Kim looks over to Shego. It feels like she definitely should have died during that… like ten different times. But here she is, sitting with Shego, super lucky to be alive. 

“Don’t worry,” Shego pats Kim on the shoulder. “You’re in shock. You don’t have to say anything. Great job out there.”

Fuck no is she just going to sit there after  _ that _ . She undoes her seatbelt immediately..

“Uh, Princess?” Shego turns back to look at where she’s flying. “Don’t tell me you undid your safety belt, I don’t want Doc to yell at us because—”

Kim dives into Shego, sinking her lips deep in… and Shego kisses back really hard. And it’s like everything Kim has ever wanted. Kim feels numb from the whole endeavor, but Shego just exhibits so much power and intensity. Kim hopes she delivers those sorts of feelings right back. She wants Shego to be hers so badly and it’s just… happening now. 

Kim’s mind blurs and she stops thinking about the future, and focuses on the now. Focuses on Shego and what the best way to kiss her is, and how to make her the most happy.

It’s not until five minutes later that someone radios in and unfortunately, it’s Drakken.

“ _ Shego, what’s going on? You’ve been flying in a straight line for _ —”

“I spaced out,” Shego answers way too quickly, cheeks blushing lime. She pushes Kim off her, and bangs a U-ie. “Sorry, chief. Um. We good here.”

“ _ Good _ ,” Drakken snips and hangs up.

Shego playfully slaps Kim on the arm, and Kim shuffles back in and buckles back up. 

“In your mission report,” Shego looks at Kim with such a smirk. “Please don’t mention we let a nuclear warhead just chill out on a parachute for like, a quarter of the hour.”

Kim’s cheeks are so hot. “Yeah. I won’t.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can [follow me on Twitter](https://twitter.com/IAmLordMeatwad) for tweets about my cats and fanfic, and [follow me on Insta](https://www.instagram.com/katrinajagelski/) for similar stuff. Occasionally I do live reads for my original fiction and fanfic.


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thanksgiving angst.

Kim takes in a deep breath outside her parents’ door. She feels oddly formal, dressed in a light blue blouse with white cuffs folded to her elbows, a black pencil skirt pulled past her waist. Which is all underneath her massive parka. 

She also feels sort of guilty; she’s been staying in Middleton for a day now. After the mission in Kansas, the one where she and Shego —  _ wow  _ — it made more sense to just drop her off in Colorado than go all the way back to New York City so Kim could commute from there. But her parents can’t know that probably.

The door opens and it’s Mom that greets her. She pulls Kim in hard around the shoulder, and Kim forgets to hug back.

“God, it’s good to see you,” Mom sighs so wistfully, so happily, holding Kim in place. Kim wishes she could appreciate her more.

Kim looks around the house, taking it all in. It’s the house that she grew up in, remodeled after Lowardia, but it really doesn’t feel like it is hers. She’s disassociated from it. She slips off her parka and hangs it on the coat rack. 

“How are you?” Kim asks in monotone.

“Good,” Mom smiles, nodding towards the kitchen. “How do you take your coffee?”

Kim raises an eyebrow. “How do you know I drink coffee now?”

“I just figured,” Mom squeezes Kim’s hand. “Black?”

“Yeah,” Kim sighs. Her parents always know. She takes a seat at the table and tries her best to ignore Ron at the very head of it all. She neatly folds her hands into her lap, trying to focus on her brothers. “Hi everyone. Long time no see.”

Her dad almost looks choked up. “So, um,” he coughs. Harumph harumph. “How’s New York, Kimmie-cub?”

“I like it a lot,” Kim says immediately. “Uh, you two are in Boston, right?”

The Tweebs nod; they’re going to MIT. 

“Uh, hey!” Ron chirps from the end of the table. “I’m here too, KP.”

Kim side eyes him, an ugly wrinkle folding under her eye. He used to be so beautiful to her and now, even when his face is smooth and smug, she can only see his anger lines… and that fire in his… blue… eyes…?

That’s new. Blue eyes. Ron has brown eyes. But today they’re blue. Dark blue.

“Ronald,” Dad chides. “Come on now. Kimmie-cub’s just tired.”

Mom walks into the room, steaming cup of coffee in hand. She looks like she’s anticipating something to happen, and well, she’s right. 

Kim ignores Ron but looks at the family. She imagines Shego at her side, how it feels to bask in her glow. “I’m sorry, I can’t do this if he’s here. Ron, you need to leave. Now.”

Ron laughs like it’s a joke, and then gapes when it’s not. “Wh-what? Oh come on, KP! Can you believe her, guys? Girl calls me, tells me not to come, and then calls me  _ again _ to say that she’s—”

“Ronald,” Mom mirrors Kim’s icy tone. “Please get out of your house.”

Dad raises an eyebrow and checks Kim’s expression. “Whatever Kim and Anne say, Ronald. Please.”

Ron grits his teeth and gets up in a huff. “Fine, whatever, don’t be surprised when she changes her mind on me again…” He stops in the doorway, letting cold air blow in. “Oh, that reminds me. Kim, you mentioned  _ that thing  _ to me.”

“Ron, go,” Kim spits. “And don’t text me ever again. I’m blocking you.”

Ron flinches in the doorway, Kim can see it from her peripherals, and then he sneers and pounds the door frame before walking out. 

Kim finally breathes out and slouches in the chair. She’s sure that won’t be the end of it between him and her though. But damn, it feels so good. After everything he’s done to her, to see him throw a tantrum and get thrown out like that, she loves it.

“I’m really sorry you had to see that. Um. I don’t want to talk about what happened between us but… Ron, kinda…” She clamps her eyes shut. Don’t cry. “...I only let him come because he tried to blackmail me.”

Mom grabs for Kim’s arm, gently massaging it. Doesn’t really help, but definitely appreciated. “Kimmie, it’s okay. We can talk about it later, let’s eat, alright? Do you want to help me take the food out?”

“Yes,” Kim feigns a smile. “I really do, just…” She taps the tablecloth. “...I want to get this out of the way. Otherwise he’ll tell you and I don’t want that.”

And then Kim says nothing, staring off into space. Where does she even begin? What should she not say?

Dad coughs. “I’ve never seen Ronald act so uncouth. I’m hoping that’s not his usual behavior around you.”

“Worse than that,” Kim sighs, and feels her words wash through the room. “Mom, you called me yesterday and made a joke that it sounded like I was dangling off a helicopter.”

Mom mouths her astonishment and leans back.

Kim frowns. “You… uh, were exactly right. I’m — I’m back. I’m doing missions again.”

Kim lets that sink in. She’s dreaded this for a while now, imaging she would feel like a relapsing mental patient in her confession, and well, she does. It was a big fucking deal when Kim quit, everyone was reeling in shock, having no idea what kind of pressure Kim had been under this whole time. It felt like drowning, and to know she’s back? 

She just hopes it isn’t hurting anyone.

“They’re… more dangerous than before,” Kim explains darkly. “I’m not allowed to tell you who I work for. I’ll say it’s not Global Justice, or the government but um…” Her frown twitches into a light smile that almost feels inappropriate. “...I like being back. I feel alive right now, and um…” She rubs her wrist. “...it’s only been a few weeks, I wasn’t sure if I should tell anyone. I was kind of wiffly wafflin’ on whether or not I’d stay but… yeah. Does that make sense?”

No one says anything but there’s an unmistakable shine in her family’s eyes, and that kind of gets Kim going. She rubs her eyes.

“You can’t tell anyone, it’s top secret,” Kim adds on quickly. “But… yeah, now you know my secret. I’m back. I’m happy, and I’m kinda sorta dating a girl right now.”

Mom leans in, elbows on the table. “Ooh, do we know her?”

Kim flushes. “Yeah, but it’s not the one you’re thinking of.”

Kim knows Mom is thinking of Bonnie because she figured _ that _ out before anyone else did. They never talked about it, but Kim had definitely talked on the phone with Mom before where Mom would say things she could only know if she had figured out Kim and Bonnie were friends with benefits.

Kinda liberating though that her parents aren’t cagey about Kim sleeping around.

“It’s Shego,” Kim breathes out. 

Quiet settles through the room.

“Those are all my secrets,” Kim finishes. For some reason, she looks to her Dad.

Dad reads the room and props his chin onto his knuckle. “Well, I hope she can come along with you next year when we do this again. Let’s eat!”

* * *

Dinner goes well and after a while, Kim loosens up and has a really good time. But the fallout of Ron’s exit is still with her, and it keeps her up at night when she tries to sleep in her childhood bedroom. She doesn’t even tuck herself in, she just lays flat on the bed motionless.

She’s almost grateful when a rock pelts her window. She heaves herself up and creaks open the window and the screen, sticking her head into the night. She’s hoping it’s Shego, visiting her after guessing Kim probably had a rough day but no; she’d be so lucky.

It’s a blue phantasm shaped like Ron. It motions for her to come down, and having nothing better to do, Kim climbs down the shingles, closing the window behind her, and drops beside the spectre. By then, it has already moved on, gliding down the street. Kim follows the thing at a safe distance, and it takes fifteen minutes for them to reach their destination: the courtyard to Middleton High School.

Ron sits at one of the lunch tables, pale and sweaty. She sees the glass bottle in his hand and expects the worst. He rocks it up and down, apparently losing control of his noodly limbs. 

Kim doesn’t sit, she stands about ten feet away from him, hands jammed into her pockets. She looks at him coolly as the phantasm fades. “What do you want.”

Ron hiccups and looks up, stunned. The bottle clatters to the ground and he gets up, nearly trips over himself. “Kim!” he bites down a sob, rushing her for a hug.

She’s done this with him before. He comes in crying, begs for her forgiveness and for some reason, she grants it. Ron gets to feel better about himself and does the same shit again. It’s hard to resist the compulsion to let it play out as it always does. But she does. She has to.

She holds up her hand and Ron eyes it with confusion, and steps back. He wipes the snot from his nose and looks to her, stunned. “Kim—K-Kim—I’m sorry for what I did today. I’ve been a real shithead to you, and God, I hit you the other day and—”

“—no shit, you hit me. It took me a half hour to cover it up in makeup so your abuse didn’t become a  _ thing _ today,” Kim finds it hard not to yell. “Stop it.”

Ron keeps rambling. Lots of mentions of how fucked up he is. 

He cries the same way he does when he loses video games too. His tears are never in good faith.

“Ron, I said stop it!” Kim yells and that seems to get his attention. She gestures for him to take a seat, and settles down across where he should be. He drops in and stares at her, pulling out another bottle. 

Kim holds her hand out. “Give that to me.”

Ron shakes his head, so Kim reaches over and steals it from him. She runs the tin lid against the edge of the table until it flies off, and she empties the beer into the grass. Honestly, when she grabbed it she didn’t know if she was going to drink it herself or empty it. 

“You don’t want to be like me,” Kim scolds. “I drink too much and it’s destroying me most days.”

Ron looks away, still sobbing. “Why’d you have to take them away from me, Kim? They’re all I have left.”

“What? They’re  _ my  _ family—”

“—but you don’t even talk to them much, it’s not fair that I’m the one who—”

“I can’t believe I’m having this conversation with you,” Kim hisses. “Unbelievable. What the Hell do you want? Why’d you drag me all the way over here? I’m considering calling you a Lyft and walking back home in a few seconds if you don’t get it together.”

Ron blinks stupidly and shrugs. “I’m lonely, Kim.”

“Too bad,” Kim frowns. “You don’t get to put that on me, not after everything that’s happened. You need help, Ron.”

“I know,” he croaks. “I know I’m fucked up…”

“No you don’t,” she accidentally yells. She tries to steady herself. “If you really _ knew that _ , you’d have gotten help by now. But all you do is call me and take it out on me, and by tomorrow guess what? You go back to your old shit. I’m done with it, Ron, I’m done with you.”

She feels bad in the moment for yelling at him, he’s weak and she’s strong. She’s lashing out when she doesn’t need to, but God, after everything he’s put her through it’s so cathartic. To just let him have it. 

His eyes are red and cracked, probably from all the tears. Which reminds her. 

Blue eyes. Blue eyed Ron. Not good.

“I need to ask you something,” Kim says, making very deliberate eye contact. “Your eyes are blue. Do you understand what you’re doing to yourself right now?”

Ron wipes his finger under his nose again, blinking away tears still. “Yeah. It’s been like that for a while, you didn’t notice? Oh, well, we don’t hang out so… yeah.”

Kim nods, feigning understanding, so this doesn’t go too poorly. “It’s your powers, right? You’re just kinda letting them… take you, yeah?”

“Yeah, they help me out a lot, save me energy and shit, you know…” Ron looks at her, face flushed. “I don’t get sick or whatever when I’m like this.”

“Ron, but you  _ are _ sick.”

“Fuck you.” There he is, back to anger already. “You come at me, yelling at me, and try to tell me how to fix my life and—”

“Ron, you’re mentally ill,” Kim practically begs. “I’m not saying it’s just the powers, but letting all that energy live in you like that can’t be healthy. Listen.” She checks their surroundings to make sure they really truly are alone. “Listen to me,” she repeats.

“What?” he groans.

Kim explains it slowly.

“I think by now you probably have an idea on what I do for work. I know for a fact you are on our hit list. Your powers are dangerous when left unchecked, the proof being our relationship,” Kim pauses for a second so it sinks in. “If you continue to live like this, someone will come for you and it might be me, Ron.”

She gulps. “I might be asked to kill you.”

Ron gapes as if offended.

Kim doesn’t let him speak. “If not for your own sanity, do it for your  _ life _ . I am  _ promising _ you, someone  _ will  _ come for you, and maybe you’ll kill them in self defense but eventually _ they  _ will end you. Do you understand?”

When he doesn’t say anything, Kim gets up to leave.

Ron shakes his head. “The fuck am I supposed to do with that? I can’t just like, get rid of my powers, I  _ am _ my powers—”

Kim holds up a finger. “I don’t care, Ron, okay? It’s not my problem, but I am letting you know because for some reason, part of me still wants good things for you.” She shuffles awkwardly in place. “We didn’t have this conversation, I am going home now. Don’t talk to me again, it’s not safe. I’m sorry.”

Kim turns away and she doesn’t look back, swearing under her breath. That is  _ not _ how she wanted that conversation to go down. When she does make it back home, she’s even more anxious than she was when she left.

* * *

Kim lays in bed for hours, watching the black sky go dark blue to cyan. It’s almost sunrise. The words still echo in her mind… because immediately after landing in Middleton the day before, Kim was intercepted and given a message.

“ _ Your mission, if you should choose to accept it, is to find a way to steal Ron Stoppable’s powers from him so that they may be destroyed. If this proves to be impossible, your mission will be to kill him. Good luck, Kim. _ ”

At least… there’s no timeline on this one. It’s not her sole focus for the next few weeks but it’s  _ there. _

Try as she might, Kim’s life is tethered to Ron, they can’t get away from each other. She supposes she could have rejected the mission but she knows if anyone’s going to pull it off, it’s her.

Besides… some idiot part of her brain tells her she can still save him. She knows it’s bullshit. But it’s what she does. Kim saves people, even if they don’t deserve it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can [follow me on Twitter](https://twitter.com/IAmLordMeatwad) for tweets about my cats and fanfic, and [follow me on Insta](https://www.instagram.com/katrinajagelski/) for similar stuff. Occasionally I do live reads for my original fiction and fanfic.


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: This chapter is incredibly soft and fluffy. <3

Kim wants to leave the day after but decides to stay the weekend with her parents. It’s… kind of nice. Just awkward. Seeing how she’s been assigned to kill Ron and everything. Like it feels wrong to not tell them that, or to not tell them she’s essentially an assassin. Her parents are just so nice to her. They trust her unconditionally.

They always have, and it feels like a betrayal to be doing any of this now. It’s only been a month since this all started and everything changed so fast. So all in all, it’s kind of nice at the end of the weekend to have spent four days outside of that reality. 

But the moment she steps back into her apartment, it’s like she never left. All that warmth from Middleton? Gone. Busy. She’s busy. She goes to lecture, she vidchats with Wade, and hangs out with her girlfriends. But it’s all so boring. She loves Wade and her girlfriends. But it isn’t enough for her. She’s hungry.

Mostly, she has no mission assignments, she knows missions can stack against this Ron thing so she sorta figured they’d give her something else to do… but maybe they’re assuming she is fully committing her time to planning the death of Ron Stoppable. 

She hates Ron but like — there has to be another way.

She misses she could see Shego, but she’s classically MIA… until Saturday night. Kim’s in her little black dress, slipping on her heels. Lyft XL pulls up in two minutes and Kim gets an email. She checks it and well — it’s just a picture of a triangle which means… Kim has to cancel on her friends. Which is probably okay, because she was planning on drinking tonight.

Kim arrives at the Bermuda Triangle and finds Shego waiting for her at the bar in a silky green dress with a thigh slit. Kim slumps in next to her. “I missed you,” Kim smiles.

“Yeah.” Kim notes that Shego slips her hand away from Kim’s almost immediately. 

“Um… how was your Thanksgiving?” Kim asks.

Shego looks to Kim and shrugs. “You?”

Kim shrugs back. “Lots of drama with Ron. I think… it’s okay for now.”

“ _ Okay _ ?” Shego raises an eyebrow. “With that new assignment you just got, you are gonna tell me things are  _ okay _ with you and him? Yeah. Alright.” She finishes her bourbon.

“Sorry, it’s just a lot right now. He’s not… well, I think. Ah. I… can we talk about something else? Like you.” Kim smiles weakly. “Like, how… how were your brothers?”

Shego blinks, and turns her legs around on the stool to face Kim. “You… don’t know?”

Maybe it’s the stress of everything, but a cold sweat comes over Kim fast. She’s expecting the worst, like… the Go Bros. died because of their lack of powers, like their anatomies don’t work without superpowers, or something like that.

“You aren’t drinking tonight, right?” Shego interrupts Kim’s thoughts.

“Trying not to.”

“Okay, let’s go outside.”

So they go for a walk, and somberly stay besides each other for some time. The streets are pretty packed. Pretty soon there will be snow. Shego looks so cute in her winter clothes, with her peacoat and woolen hand-knitted hat, and gloves…

“How come you wear winter clothes?” Kim asks kinda stupidly. “Can’t you just warm yourself up?”

Shego smirks. “Yeah, but I know you think I’m cute like this.”

Kim blushes hard. “Heh. I really do. Um. Where are we going?”

“We’re gonna keep walking until I feel okay enough to tell you something I don’t tell just anyone.”

Kim frowns and stays in place. Shego doesn’t notice until she’s a few steps ahead and looks back. “Let’s go to my apartment,” Kim says. “No one’s home.”

Shego seems to consider it, and then shakes her head. “No. I don’t want to fuck you tonight.”

Kim’s cheeks glow brighter, like…  _ ooh _ , good to have that on the table but also, like, “That’s not what I meant. It’s just quiet there and we can talk. We can’t have sex on my bed anyways, it’s twin sized.”

Shego’s shoulders fall, and she motions for Kim to lead the way.

* * *

“I’m still surprised you live with so many people,” Shego slowly looks around, keeping her coat on. “I just took you as someone with a lot of money. I mean your parents must be well off.”

“Yeah, but, I try to make my own path,” Kim says, knowing she is in fact a little privileged, and does ask for money when she needs it. “So um… your brothers?”

“Oh, yeah,” Shego’s hands escape into her pockets. “So like, you know how I was a kid superhero right? Well, uh, there’s two versions of that story. What did Hego tell you?”

“Hego told me that um… you became infatuated with villainy and decided to become one yourself. Do you want some tea?”

Kim doesn’t actually want tea, but she’s pretty sure taking physical distance from Shego will make it easier for her to speak candidly. Kim wants to respect that.

“Yeah, that’d be great.”

Kim nods and goes to the kitchen, listening to Shego all the while. 

“So that isn’t true at all,” Shego says. “I ran away from home when I was 11 or something. I just felt like I was being used and exploited because I had these dumb super powers. I kept asking if I could stop and Hego would go on these rants about how  _ Go City needs protecting! _ ”

Kim fills her tea kettle with two cups of filtered water, and settles it on the stovetop, while picking out the teabags. Peppermint for her, spiced cinnamon for Shego. 

“Me running away from home looked pretty bad for them, so Hego lied. He lied and lied and lied and, uh, I think he kinda believed his lie after a while. It was really shitty,” Shego monologues. It feels like she might have rehearsed this. It makes Kim’s heart thump. 

“So anyways, I’m a child with superpowers and no friends or family. I don’t want to go to an orphanage or anything, I don’t even want _ parents _ so I just… well, I need to survive. And I fell in with a pretty bad group of people. They used me just like Hego did.”

Kim starts to feel bad. Maybe she should be on the couch with Shego, not organizing her kitchen while listening in. But she knows not being physically besides her makes Shego feel safer.”

“I did a lot of bad shit, like,  _ really _ bad and the guy who pulled me out of it was Doc. Lots of energy, no direction though. And he kinda sucked at being a villain but paid me pretty damn well so… I went along with it,” Shego pauses and Kim thinks she hears her sniffle. “Because I could survive under him without really hurting anyone innocent, and like… his plots were stupidly fun.” Kim can hear a smile settling in. Shego must be nostalgic for those early days.

The tea kettle wails and Kim pours the water into the mugs, setting the timer for five minutes and steps out into the living room to see Shego’s knees pressed together, hands clenched. 

“Do the math, Kimmie,” Shego says. “We’re the same age, and your dad went to college with Doc; what do you think happened?”

Kim thinks it over for a second, and the conclusion is kind of obvious in context but like… would Drakken really…?

“He adopted you?” Kim nearly gasps.

Shego presses her lips together and nods. “My legal name is Sheila Lipsky now, yeah, and Doc is… um…” She bows her head. 

“It’s okay,” Kim gently grips Shego’s knee, rocking it back and forth. “Don’t be embarrassed. I’m, um, proud of you.”

Shego nods, sniffing again, trying to shake it off. “He’s my Dad, like, for real. He’d make me dinner, he’d make sure I was in bed on time, home schooled me between capers, took me to the doctor, he’s… yeah. He’s my best friend, Kimmie. That’s why I’m standing by him right now.” She gives Kim a serious look. 

“But, um, because of his work now, he’s busier than ever so we didn’t get to do Thanksgiving this year. It’s fine. Dumb holiday anyways.”

Kim nods along, waiting to make absolutely sure Shego is done talking before speaking. “If it helps, um, I told my parents about us…”

Shego flinches. 

“...and they said they’d love to see you with me next year, if uh, you know, things go okay, maybe we could even do Christmas together,” Kim started saying that with a smile but when she doesn’t see a smile back at her, she frowns. “You don’t see us like that, do you? Fuck,” she turns away. “I misread things, I’m so stupid…”

“Princess, Princess,” Shego grabs Kim’s shoulder and turns her around. “Be cool, you didn’t mess up. You just freak me out. I’ve never been in a serious relationship before, and I know that’s what you want from me.”

Kim groans. “I am  _ so _ transparent.”

Shego reaches over and runs a glove through Kim’s hair, gently twirling it. “It’s scary for me, especially because like… you know, we work together, but only sometimes. I’m not going to be around most of the time and honestly, we communicate too much outside of work as is. Like we’re technically allowed to, it’s just frowned upon because this is all supposed to be airtight. But I know why you really stole that diamond and why you’re here. And it’s… flattering, Kimmie. It really is.”

Kim gently guides Shego’s glove out of her hair, and tugs it off, revealing the white hand underneath. Kim touches it, running her finger over all the calluses. She looks into Shego’s eyes and…

_ Beep-beep-de-beep! _

...Shego bursts out laughing. “Oh my God!  _ That _ is your ringtone?! Holy shit, Kimmie.”

Kim blushes furiously, trying to ignore the fact that Shego is actually crying at how funny this is, and checks her dumbass phone. “Fucking dammit.”

Shego flicks a tear away. “What’s wrong?”

“Fucking Ron.”

“Oy vey. Yo, do you need help with that?”

“What? Taking his powers away? Probably,” Kim sighs. “I keep forgetting to block him.”

“Whoa, slow down, Kimmie,” Shego suddenly yanks Kim’s phone away, setting it down behind her. “I don’t think you should block him.”

“Why?” 

“Because, like, the whole reason they even picked you for this mission is well, you’re… you know. Your  _ in _ is right there, to stop someone like Stoppable, you’re probably going to need to manipulate him—and hey, don’t shoot the messenger here, I’m just sayin’. You have every right to block him, if it were me and I had to do this with Hego… I’d block his fucking ass. But you need to consider your options and think about it, how you’re actually going to stop him. Because it’s inevitable, Kimmie. If you don’t do it… someone else will.”

“And they’ll be harsher,” Kim finishes. “Um, I actually… I kind of told him—I didn’t say I had to kill him!” She throws a hand up. “I just mentioned people will be coming for him, and seeing how he’s not even using his powers, he should try to get rid of them. Take the target off his back.”

Shego blinks a few times and shakes her head. “Def don’t tell Hank you did that, but I hear you. He’s not gonna like… do that for you though. Maybe if…” She leans back, swinging her leg over hers. “...you told him like,  _ hey, you can keep texting me, but only if you do this shit to get rid of your powers _ .”

Kim frowns and nods. “I’ll consider that—” and hears the timer go off. “—okay cool. Tea’s ready. Are you okay to like… just hang out tonight?”

Shego cracks her neck back, and squeezes her jaw like she’s swallowing a really gross green bean. She knocks it back and sighs, “Yeah, yeah. Let’s… let’s hang out.”

Kim smiles.


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CW: graphic depictions of violence

Kim doesn’t know this guy, but apparently he knows her. No, he doesn’t just know her, he  _ loathes _ her. He says she ruined his life and hey, with the amount of people she’s punched out before, she wouldn’t be shocked if she landed this dude in prison back when this used to be  _ fun _ .

Guy’s got slicked back hair, a thick goatee, and pink, patchy skin. His collar is open like he’s trying to emulate Scarface or some shit. Salvatore Cagan, they call him. Just some New York mobster. Grunts like an ox, built like one too. Hank warned her about him. 

Kim is kind of pissed off tonight, because she was under the impression she wouldn’t have to do jobs like this, but apparently this is what Hank classifies as  _ clean-up _ . Leftover remnants from an old operation. The agent in charge of all the Cagan stuff croaked a few months back so now it’s Kim’s problem. Lucky her.

It’s fine. She can handle him. She starts off with a sleeping dart to the neck. Cagan hits the floor immediately, the ring of goons yelping and finding Kim’s hiding spot in the warehouse immediately. They shoot at her and she leaps, lands onto a metal catwalk and sprints across, all while dropping a shit ton of smoke bombs to the ground floor.

The bombs go off and there’s screaming. Laughing to herself, Kim latches her grapple to the bottom rail of the catwalk and swings on down to the ground level, falling into a dropkick that stomps one goon right to the cement. 

Kim rolls off him and points her sleepy sleep gun at the three goons she’s sort of got sights on through the smoke. She fires fast and very precisely. All three smack the floor. This is exhausting. Easy, but still tiresome. Back in the day, she’d quip like crazy but now she can’t even catch her breath.

She’s supposed to be killing them though, she was ordered to kill them. But she figures hey, another prison sentence for these assholes should be enough. Besides, she’s still pure. No need to make her first kill when it’s not necessary. 

A fist pushes through the smoke and Kim  _ just _ manages to dodge it. She sidesteps and lets the guy get in front of her, and then darts in, chopping him right on his collarbone. It’s swift and he falls. Kim drops a knee and kicks her gun back up, rapidly searching for anyone who’s left. Heart pounding, head throbbing. She’s sweating.

The smoke falls and she doesn’t see anyone left standing. Kim smiles to herself, puts the guns away, and claps her hands together. Job well done. That was actually pretty easy, probably shouldn’t be a surprise. But still, she hasn’t cleared house like this in a long time.

Then she feels something really hard ram into the small of her back. She stumbles forward, whirls around, and takes a series of punches right to the face. She falls back again and squints through one eye, her other eyelid swinging shut no matter how hard she tries to keep it open. She’s bleeding from her mouth too.

Salvatore Cagan’s teeth are clenched so tight it looks like he might bust his own jaw. He sidesteps around her, growling. Apparently the sleep dart wasn’t enough for this piece of shit. That’s on Kim. She should’ve known better. 

Salvatore clocks Kim in the jaw and she falls backwards, head slamming into a pipe. She collapses on the dusty ass floor, in far too much pain to make a sound. She rasps a silent scream and grabs the pipe with her shaking hand, using it for support while she pulled herself up. She’s getting weaker by the second goddamit. 

She’s not strong enough. Not fast enough. Not smart enough. Not anything enough, she’s good as dead if she keeps this up. 

Back in the old days, this creep would be tied up by now but in this moment, toe to toe, Kim can’t deck him. She’s still out of form, and that makes this feel so much worse. Old Kim would chastise her so hard for getting dropped on like that.

Salvatore says something she can’t hear over the ringing in her ears, and he lifts his leg with perfect form and kicks her right in the gut. She grunts, and crumples back to the floor. Legs and arms flapping like jelly, she scrambles back to her feet only to get decked again. He runs his fist against his jaw, knocking her to the floor. He laughs at her, and spits on her stupid black suit. 

“This is fuckin’ stupid,” Salvatore clicks his tongue, her hearing finally returning to her left ear. Right ear blocked. Nothing. “You even gonna try, kiddo? I really wanted to enjoy this.”

Kim snarls and pushes herself up fast enough that it catches him off-guard. She keeps her head low and rams into his waist, lifting him off his feet and slamming him into some kind of chemical vat. His hands clap down on her and within seconds, he’s flipped her around. 

He’s got a hand on her throat, and she’s lost so much blood and energy, she’s got seconds to live probably. She chokes and tries to hit him but it does nothing. Everything’s fading. She’s going pale.

Kim Possible is going to die in a fucking warehouse in New York because some mob boss got her on a bad day. 

No, she can’t die. That’s not why she does this work. She doesn’t want to die anymore, she actually cares about something, or at least, she cares about some _ one _ .

And fucking Hell does she really want to save the world. 

Kim slips her left hand in and holds down the pink hand Salvatore’s using to pin her by the chest, and folds in her thumb. She needs to lock his hand into place for a second. Her right hand comes in and she grabs the first finger she can snag from him and cracks it back into his knuckle, and yeah, that bone snaps for sure. He screams, and she finally kicks him off her. 

Kim gasps for air, clutching her throat, hand swatting against the metal to support herself. She spits up blood, glaring at him all the while. She’s known about that finger snap tactic for years now, but never actually had to use it. 

“You fucking bitch,” he says, or, something nasty like that, she doesn’t know, her ears are ringing and nothing is getting through. She’s fading fast. She needs him gone. She doesn’t know how though, he’s stronger than her and he’s  _ livid. _

The finger crunch was easy after all, anyone with some nerve can do that. Kim doubts she can hit him with enough force to send him on his ass, especially at this point.

But it starts with letting go of the metal. She can’t fight otherwise. C’mon Kim. Get grounded, get serious, fucking fight.

Kim releases the metal reluctantly, her hand falls back to her side. She hunches over. Is she bobbing from side to side or is that just her vision? 

Come on, Possible. Floor him. 

Kim runs at him and swings at his head. She wants to smash his skull in, but instead he grabs her and flips her over his back. She flops to the ground, scrambling to get up and then he kicks her in the jaw again. She rolls over and spits a wad of dark, dark blood onto the floor. It’s sticky, and it’s on her teeth. She tries to get back up again.

She’s got a gun. An actual gun. That kills. She just needs to get the—

—too late. Salvatore swings at her. Again and again. He pounds her body. He goes so fast she can’t feel any singular blow because the impacts just keep moving her. Knees, hips, stomach, chest, face, everywhere. Rapidfire and after enough swings she stumbles backwards. He reaches forward and grabs her the sides of her head and drags her skull into his rising knee. 

That’s the one that does it.

Kim hits the floor hard, gasping and choking and crying and screaming.

Salvatore kicks Kim onto her back, stomping on her knee to hold her in place. Like a bug, like a wiggling’ little bug. He smiles, barely harmed from the fight, and shakes his head. “I’m going to bust your fucking head open.”

She can barely move. She shouldn’t even be  _ alive _ after all that. It’s sheer willpower keeping her conscious right now. She’ll probably die in a few minutes, even if he just stares at her and does nothing, she’ll die.

Fuck this. Her whole body is limp. She can’t keep going.

Her head lolls to the side, dragging against the cement, and she tries to focus on him. He’s so blurry. He’s not even far away and he’s blurry. 

She wills herself to fucking  _ move _ and gets the gun from her holster and holds it high, aiming directly at his face. 

“Ha,” Salvatore cackles wryly. “So little Kim Possible is packin’ tonight, huh? I’m impressed. You know how to shoot one of those, right?” He spits and it hits her check. She’s crying now. “Y’know, you’re aiming at the fucking ceiling right now, dipshit. Try movin’ a bit to the right, heh heh heh.”

Kim narrows her eyes. She can’t speak. Her mouth won’t move. 

And her vision won’t work. It’s not accurate, he keeps laughing at her, so she closes her eyes. Lets the darkness come over her. That’s the only way she can do this. Trust her instincts and line up the shot.

“I bet you’re one of those girls who just have a gun on them to scare the shit out of people,” Salvatore laughs, and raises his foot. At least, she hears the heel crunch dirt as it rises off the floor. This is it. He’s about to stomp her fucking head open. 

Come on, Kim. Take the fucking shot. Or die. 

He laughs like a real supervillain. “Sayonara, Kim Possib—”

_ Bang. _

The recoil hurts her wrist and it knocks the gun from her hand. It falls on her chest, but fuck, that’s heavy. And big. Something else fell on her, it’s not—it’s not just the gun it’s… shit.

His corpse is heavy as fuck, even without a face. She can’t push him off, so she rolls out from under him. She grinds her whole body against the ground until he drops besides her and she makes the mistake of looking. 

Salvatore’s head is just… open. Kim can see bone and falling flesh and blood. There’s nothing. She  _ destroyed  _ him. 

Fuck fuck fuck. That’s it, that’s how it feels. She shouldn’t—she could have been smarter about this, she could have gotten around it but no she’s a straight up murderer now and there are sirens. White light is blasting through the doors. She can’t grieve, she can’t process, she needs to run. 

Kim slowly creaks back up, pulling out her ski mask. There’s a metal ladder, get back to the ladder, Kim. Climb. She gets up and hobbles over. 

“ _ Possible, for the last time, you need to fucking go! _ ” Hank snaps. 

“Wuh?” Kim stutters, body falling against the ladder. Thank God she caught herself. She bunches up her hair and fits the ski mask on. “I… have you been talking to me this whole time, Hank?” She’s so weak. Her own body isn’t in her own control right now.

“ _ Shit, you need to go to a hospital _ …”

Kim grabs the ladder tight, and hears the doors bang open behind her. The pigs start shouting, and the light shines past her. 

Kim Possible,  _ the _ Kim Possible, could escape right now. She’d have the agility. But not this girl, not whoever  _ this  _ is. She can’t do it. She’s dying. These people can help her faster than she can help herself.

“GET DOWN. FROM THE LADDER.” they shout and other shit like that. Pigs.

Kim closes her eyes, and whispers into her radio, “Hank, I’m so fucking sorry.”

“ _ You’ll be okay, _ ” Hank says in a sudden panic. “ _ We’ll come for you. Don’t lose hope. But I need to disavow you. _ ”

Kim doesn’t know what that means. But she drops and puts her hands behind her head, turning around to face the pigs. She can’t even tell how many there are, not when they have that stupid light in her eyes like that. It burns her retinas.

“Come to me slowly,” one pig says, gun trained on her. “And then get on your knees.”

Kim takes one tentative step forward, and then drags her other foot along. Limping. This should be okay. They can keep her alive. It beats the alternative.

There’s an explosion. Kim feels heat on her stomach, and then sees this white spark. It’s her fucking radio exploding into scrap metal—

—so that’s what disavowed means, no one can track her to the Bermuda Triangle now—

—but the pigs get scared. Oink oink. The pigs see fire and scream. One stupidly shoots her in the stomach. As if today could get any worse.

Kim falls back against the ladder and slumps like a puppet. Her eyes close. She’s done. It’s over.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait, I haven't been doing too good lately. 3 months unemployed and it's really getting to me. :/ I'll post next chapter tomorrow to make up for it.


	18. Chapter 18

Kim wakes up and her mouth is dry. She wakes up and she still feels asleep. She wakes up and she’s in a hospital bed watching a news report about herself.

Not for the first time. It’s just been a minute since anyone gave a fuck about Kim Possible.

She has a hard time understanding what they’re saying, but it seems to her that they’re trying to paint Kimberly Ann Possible, washed up teen hero, as a cold blooded killer. Her stomach churns. She really fucked that up. At least she’s alive.

Whenever she blinks, she sees the open skull leaking out organs and staring back at her. She won’t ever forget.

The television shuts off and someone stands up, the top of his head rising to her field of vision. He steps forward and she struggles to look him in the eye. Agent Will Du. He drags a chair behind him and takes a seat besides Kim, looking at her hard.

Kim sinks deeper into her pillow. She’s in a loose hospital gown, connected to a ton of different machines, her right leg held up in some kind of splint. Her jaw still hurts too. 

He doesn’t say anything, and it gives her enough time to slowly crane her neck over to look at him. It doesn’t hurt, but that’s probably because it hurts so much she just feels nothing. She wishes Shego were here.

“Hi,” she rasps. “You taking me in?”

Will frowns. “No, that would be a bitch move. I am the agent assigned to your case, however.”

That hurts her head. “Why aren’t the police…”

“Doctor Director has, uh, an interest in you, Possible,” Will tilts his head to the side, looking at her curiously. “It’s overriding much of standard procedure. But I don’t want you to be afraid of me, okay?”

“Why.” She doesn’t trust Will. He’s a career minded ghoul who would backstab at a moment’s notice she bets.

Will cracks a grin that folds wrinkles into his high cheeks. “You did me a favor at Global Justice a few weeks ago, remember?”

She does. “What. All I did was… I replaced you because—”

“Shhh,” he coos. “I figured it out, the, uh,  _ other thing _ , that you did while at Global Justice and since I found out what you prevented from happening, I’ve been looking for a way out. You’re lucky I’m the one assigned to you, Possible. I already drew up a report on what happened. You’ll be safe.”

He holds up a manilla folder and she furrows her brow. This is all really fast. Her head hurts, that’s the only pain she can comprehend, and it’s hard to follow along with anything he’s saying, but he seems at least somewhat genuine. 

“The story is that you were lured into the warehouse by your former foe, Salvatore Cagan. You aren’t doing any kind of agent work after all...” Kim still doesn’t remember who Cagan is or why he hated her so much. 

No, not  _ is _ . Was. He’s wormfood now. Fuck.

“You were ambushed and fought back, but Salvatore got the drop on you. Obviously, you couldn’t hold your own, so you killed him in self-defense. Which I think is more or less the truth,” Will cocks his head to the left, looking down at her. “If asked, that’s all you need to say. Media is sensationalizing the story right now, it’s possible you’ll be asked to interview.”

Kim groans and turns away. She should be in pain right now, but she’s just numb, probably zonked out on painkillers.

“There’s two things I need to mention though,” Will continues, pulling a plastic baggie out of a briefcase. It’s her gun and the busted up radio. “I checked the records and you do not currently have a license to carry. You’ll need to get that to continue working for who I think you’re working for.”

She opens her mouth, and then closes it. Best to just go along with it and not say anything when he’s helping her like this.

“Maybe get some training on how to use one too,” Will says, so emotionally distant. “Other problem is this busted radio. It’s pretty blatant you were in contact with someone. If that comes out, you’re fucked, because you no longer look so defenseless. I’d advise your, uh,  _ people _ , to be more discreet with this sort of thing.  _ This _ is damning. No one can trace it, but it’s still evidence.”

Kim’s eyes go a little dim and she focuses on the fluorescent lighting. “Is the bullet still in my stomach.”

It’s hard for her to speak with any kind of emotion like this.

“Right, I’m sorry. Medical stuff, the doctors briefed me.”

She braces herself for the worst.

“You’ll be okay,” Will says quickly, “You’re lucky, the biggest problem is your jaw. It’s not broken but—you’re going to need to give it some time to heal. Uh, the doctors can give you more info on that.”

“The bullet?” she asks dimly. 

“Still in there, it’s not killing you to have it, but you lost a lot of blood. They’re guessing you’re going to need to stay here for two weeks.”

“Two weeks?” she groans under her breath. “Fuck me in the asshole.”

“Yeah, it’s not fun,” he says listlessly. “I’d recommend avoiding any kind of field work until the end of the year at least. It’s not worth it, especially if you’re doing jobs like  _ that _ .”

She presses her teeth together, and it probably doesn’t do her jaw any good but she’s angry. It’s not fair for her to get mad at him but… “They aren’t all like that.”

Will blinks. “Sorry, I overstepped.”

“You did,” she hisses, leaning farther back. “It’s okay, I’m really thankful you’re—” she coughs. “—helping me. I know you don’t have to.”

She can’t see him anymore from where she lays down, but she can hear his voice soften. “I owe you, a lot of agents owe you in fact. So—if I can ever help you again—I will, Kim. I’m serious.”

She chuckles, even though it hurts her ribs. “I never saw you as the type to turncoat like this.”

“I never saw Betty as the type to—well—”  _ condition soldiers _ . “—y’know. Whatever it is you do next, I don’t have to tell you twice, but you’re seriously lucky to be alive with injuries like this—”

“No,” Kim interrupts, rasping like a chain smoker. “I’m not  _ lucky _ to be alive, I fucking fought for this.” 

His expression softens again and he whispers, “Yes, good soldier,” then continues you into his cold, emotionally distant explanation, “The media has an eye on you. You can make an airtight alibi, but people won’t believe you. People want Kim Possible back, but they simultaneously don’t want a Kim Possible that kills.” 

Yeah. She figured. Back when Ron was almost certainly disappearing people during the gap year, that was Kim’s most selfish concern. People see her, or saw her—whatever honestly—as America’s sweetheart. They romanticized her, but if they knew the real Kim. Alcoholic, gun toting, mercenary Kim Possible. Well, they’d hate her guts. 

And people always want to feel  _ something _ . They always need to have a take. 

“Hey,” she rasps, turning slightly to look at him. “You’re a good person.”

He allows himself a small smile. “I know.” Okay, now he’s being smug. “Take care. I’d offer you my number, but with me on your case—”

“—I get it.”

“...of course you do, right,” he sighs.

Will finally leaves her, and though her energy is starting to come back to her already, she doesn’t want to stay awake. That would mean she’d have to think, and there’s only one thing she can think about. So she wills herself to sleep. 

* * *

Five days in, Kim gets her first visitor, and it’s not anyone she expected. 

“Oof, sorry to startle you,” Dr. Drakken panics, taking a seat besides her. She’s in a cold sweat and he’s wrapping his hand around hers, which sort of scares her more.

It’s lights out and obviously no visitors are expected. She was asleep like five seconds ago, and it kinda pisses her off to be awake because it took her nearly three hours to finally zonk out. 

Kim wants to yell at him but 1.) she doesn’t have the energy for that and 2.) Drakken is her boss now. So.

She wishes it were Shego though. She misses her so fucking much. Why isn’t she here?

“Um, sorry, I—I really had no other way to see you other than this,” Drakken explains quietly. “It’s very complicated getting agents in and out and—”

“Shego,” Kim rasps weakly. “Where.”

“—ah, she’s, um… she’s working. She told me she misses you too, and the second she can she’ll be there.”

Kim blinks, not really sure what any of this is about. “You’re pissed at me, aren’t you?” she croaks. “I fucked up.”

Drakken makes a face and looks away, shaking his head. “You think so little of me, don’t you?” He sighs, and his sigh drags through his mouth like an old comb, really expressing his age. “I’m—I feel responsible, Kimberly Ann. Technically, I’m really not supposed to… be here, as Big “Big” Daddy, I must be elusive but—nyergh.”

It’s endearing how awkward he is sometimes.

“Sorry, I’m bitchy,” she groans. “You’re not supposed to adopt your partners in crime either, but hey, here you are.”

Drakken winces before giving into a smile. “Ah, she told you, didn’t she? Yes, I’ve been Shego’s father since before you even met her… and I’m vaguely aware of um, you—nyeh,  _ courting _ her.”

Kim coughs and reaches over for some water. Drakken notices and gives the cup to her; she hates things being handed to her like that, makes her feel feeble, but honestly it saves her a lot of energy. “Thanks,” she rasps. “I’m not leaving the Bermuda Triangle, you know—if um, that’s what you’re here for.”

“I know you won’t,” he neatly folds his hands into his lap and looks away, like a birdwatcher at the park might. “You have a strong sense of justice that guides you, Kimberly Ann. I’m expecting you’ll hang around here for some time.” He presses his lips together. “This is going to be your first time _ here _ though.”

Yeah, she figured that already. Better get used to mind numbing pain.

Something else is on his mind, she just doesn’t know what, or if it’s worth the mental energy to pry.

“It’s not your fault,” that’s Kim’s best stab at it. “I did it to myself, I should’ve… I should’ve killed that bastard when I had a chance.”

Drakken raises an eyebrow, looking at her oh so curiously. “It’s probably not… healthy to chastise yourself for  _ not  _ killing.”

“Ha,” she laughs weakly. “I guess you’re right.”

“Of course I am, I’m very smart,” he chuckles.

Then they just sit there together for a while, not saying anything. He swings his foot back and forth like a child might, and she just lays there. It’s fascinating to her that this is who Drakken turned into, and that a ‘mob boss’ would ever visit one of her people like this. 

It almost makes her more angry that no one is mad at her, or blaming her. Because she fucked up the job and nearly blew the whole operation sky high.

She can’t even bring that up though, if she does, people will just get mad at her for her self-loathing. They’ll hand her water, tell her what they think she needs to hear, and tuck her in. If she’s in a wheelchair, they’ll push her. They’ll lay over for her because she’s name brand Kim Possible.

She falls asleep at some point and when she wakes up the next day, she’s resentful of how well she slept. 

She’s a murderer. Murderers don’t deserve sleep, right? 

She doesn’t know. She doesn’t know anything anymore. She needs to cry, she thinks, but she’s too weak to even bother.

* * *

It takes a week and a half, towards the end of her stay, but Kim’s parents come to her. She actually asked them not to come, and not to worry about her. She says it’s really not that bad, but her parents know better; this is easily the most damage Kim has ever taken from any one of her missions. Her parents know that, Kim knows they know that, and of course they aren’t going to listen. It’s their first time being with her in New York actually, though not under the best conditions.

Kim tells herself to be strong for her parents. Because they know the damning truth of what really happened, and they know that without intervention, it will keep happening. She’s really in the big leagues now.

But the second Kim meets her mom’s eyes, she can’t do it, can’t tell them it’s fine. She bursts into tears, rocking against the bed, nearly dislodging one of the tubes going into her arm. Mom holds Kim back by the chest and gently rubs her back while Kim lets it all out. Kim grabs mom’s jacket and pulls her in, keeping her close. 

“Please don’t go back, Kimmie,” her mom begs her, crying too. “You’ve done enough.”

Protests bubble at Kim’s mouth, words she can’t say. Words like  _ No, I haven’t done enough. _ and  _ I deserve this. _

No one else really says anything, it’s just Kim and her mom sobbing in each other’s arms.

Her dad hands Kim her Pandaroo, and unfolds her old blanket she used to have back in high school. He lays it out over the hospital bed, tucking it in for her, squeezing the silly looking plush besides her. Kim knows this was Dad’s idea but he’s not going to admit to it, he just smiles at her proudly. 

They’re going to stay the week in an Airnbnb before heading back to Middleton. Kim gets let out in four days so she can enjoy some time with the rents before they peace out. She doesn’t know yet if they’re going to let her walk on her own, or if she’ll be asked to take a wheelchair out. 

The thing that Kim hates the most about all of this is the pain. She hurts so much. But only sometimes. Some days she’s just numb, this day though is Hell. She’s been beaten before but not like that. Every punch, every kick, that bastard  _ meant _ it. He wanted Kim to scream for whatever it is she did to him. It was pure, adulterated loathing. Loathing Kim didn’t know human beings were capable of.

And it makes her feel kind of happy she shot him through the fucking skull. She doesn’t want to feel happy about being a murderer. But thank God he’ll never hurt anyone again. Killing was the only answer.

She needs to get that stupid license to carry though. She needs to learn how to shoot.

So she can kill more people. 

* * *

Kim gently heaves herself into her own bed finally. She’s so fucking tired. Day out with the parents. She really didn’t want to use the wheelchair, but she needed it after a while. It was nice, like, showing her family around the area, letting them into her life like that. She showed them her local grocery store, it’s this cheap Armenian market. She also showed them her library, her campus, her everything. And she talked. She talked and actually laughed so much that her mouth hurt at the end of it.

The only thing she really didn’t like was the amount of times people snuck pictures of her. It’s been so long since people gave a shit about her, and now they stare at her like they want her to perform for them. At least there’s no hazing.

Her parents don’t get to meet the roommates. Kim politely requested that they do that on Sunday, she just needed to pass the fuck out. 

And man is it quiet when she comes in. Some of the girls greet her, but don’t really look at her. Great. They’re fucking afraid of her, awesome.

Kim clenches her fists and trudges on.

When she settles into bed, she’s too tired to even pull the blankets over. She just lays there, exhausted, breathing hard. Erica’s taking a shower or something, she’s sure Erica will be okay to talk to. To kill some time, Kim checks her phone. She hasn’t looked at it in a week and—

—oof. First post on social media she finds is  _ you know it’s a bad year when even kim possible is killing people. _

There’s more shit like that, more memes about Kim Possible shooting someone. Haha, postironic culture, it’s so funny to make fun of Kim, she’s sure all those people are super happy with their own lives.

Everyone is so detached from reality that they can’t see anyone else’s pain. She shuts her phone off and sets it down on her desk, and stares at the ceiling.

She wonders if she’s supposed to reach out to Hank and Shego, or if they’ll come to her. She does get the feeling that Hank is doing something to help her, because no one has asked her to do any kind of interviews surprisingly. 

Erica steps in, and jumps with surprise. “Oh! Kim, uh, h-how are you?”

Kim tilts her head to look at her friend, and then rolls onto her elbow. “No one from the press is bothering you guys, right?”

“What do you mean?” 

“Like interviews and stuff, I’m sure people know I live here by now,” Kim shrugs. “I’m sorry if anyone does bother you.”

Erica nods and gives her a  _ Do you need to talk about it? _ kinda look but she doesn’t say anything. She seems to have a hard time making eye contact. “I’ll just say don’t check your phone.”

“Too late,” Kim fights really hard to make a smile, but it doesn’t read apparently. 

Erica nods and climbs into bed. 

Obviously Erica doesn’t want to talk. Kim rolls onto her back and returns to just staring at the ceiling, waiting for something to happen or for her to fall asleep. 

Something does happen eventually. “Kim. We don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to…”

Kim sighs. She kinda feels like a bitch because while she definitely  _ wants _ to talk about if, she also wants to pretend it never happened. “What’s up?”

“...did you really have to… ya know?”

“Yes,” Kim says darkly. She’d look at Erica, but that might make it scarier. She knows people are already afraid of her. “I really did.”

“I trust you,” Erica says softly, voice still dangling. “I just didn’t know that you did that sort of thing, shit, I’m being judgmental towards you, I don’t mean to—”

“It’s fine,” Kim interrupts, kicking her feet out. She hesitates, biting down on her grief. “I didn’t know I did that sort of thing either.”


	19. Chapter 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kim and Shego train together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading. : ) 
> 
> I'm on hiatus with this project. I'm focused mostly on Rebirth and my novel right now, but I have three chapters I've been holding onto for a while now and I don't like holding onto stuff. So I'll post those 3 up this week, and I know I'll definitely get back into this at some point. Thanks for bearing with me.

There’s a green ember in Central Park, hovering in the air just outside a black tunnel. Kim’s heart leaps out of her chest and all this energy just comes to her. Her cheeks flush, and she twitches in excitement.

Kim looks back to her parents and nods. “Hey, I need to take this. Can you…”

Her parents nod back. She’s not sure if they noticed the flame or not, but she waves them off and struts over to the tunnel, slipping in, folding her hands behind the small of her lover’s back. 

Shego stands there in a high collar peacoat and rolls her eyes playfully, mussing Kim’s hair. Her chalk white skin sticks out like a sore thumb against the dark, hence her not moving an inch away from the wall she’s pressed against.

Shego opens her mouth.

Kim can’t not resist  _ that. _ She dives in and kisses Shego with all she has, holding her by the shoulders. It lasts as long as it needs to, and Kim’s backs off, black lipstick smeared on her lips.

“Ah shit,” Shego groans, pulling out a hanky, and dabbing Kim’s face like she’s a baby. “Don’t fuss, I’m sure you’ve noticed everyone and their grandma is watching you, bad time to be famous again. Last thing you need is my lips on your cheek.”

“A lot of people wear black lipstick,” Kim protests.

“Ugh, whatever, I’m just being careful,” Shego wipes it away anyways and leans back. “You holding up?” 

Kim shrugs. “As well as I can be. I really miss you.”

“Same,” Shego says, her voice oddly constricted. “I’m sorry we couldn’t connect, it was just really risky, you know, with your high profile. Plus, we had a lot of damage control to do.”

“Damage control?” Kim raises an eyebrow.

Shego leans back even more. “Yeah. Every major news outlet and a bunch of podcasters wanted to interview you so Hank posed as your manager to get the vultures to fuck off, and I had to kill some evidence. Which is, um why I’m here a little early. I just wanted to talk for a second.”

“I appreciate it,” Kim smiles, coming in closer, pressing Shego’s body against the wall. Shego doesn’t stop her. 

“There’s video,” Shego explains. “It’s dead now, don’t worry about it. But I had to get the cam footage before anyone else did, and I finally watched it the other day and… fuck, I’m going to sound like  _ such  _ a bitch when I say it. Can you take it?”

Kim frowns. “I’m out of shape, is that it?”

“No.”

“Uh… fuck. I don’t… oh. It’s because I didn’t kill anyone right away.”

“Yeah,” Shego sighs. “I just… I’m sorry, Kimmie, but like… you’re an assassin now. You kill people, and you learned last week why it’s actually kind of a big deal that you follow through.”

Kim blinks. “I understand.”

“You’re pissed,” Shego says.

“A little, yeah. I mean, it’s not that easy, I… I’ve never killed before, well, I guess I have now, and um.”

Shego touches Kim’s back and slides her chin onto her shoulder, rocking her to and fro. “I know. This is my fault. I knew you weren’t ready to be out there and—”

It makes Kim so angry when people do this, when they shift the blame from her to themselves. It’s infantilizing and it bothers her. She’s accountable to her own actions and… she’s mad, she can’t help but be mad.

Kim grabs Shego’s wrist. “ _ Don’t _ .”

Shego doesn’t say anything, and it takes Kim a second too long to realize she is squeezing Shego’s wrist  _ way too hard _ . And all of a sudden tears spring to her eyes and she’s sobbing into Shego’s chest. How dare she do that? There is no excuse for such violence, and...

“I’m just like him now,” Kim manages to say. “I’m just like him…”

“No, no—shh… shh…” Shego gently lowers Kim down to the ground, and pulls her in, hands igniting to give her even more warmth. “...it’s not your fault, okay? None of this is your fault, alright?”

Shego doesn’t know that though. Kim’s not going to object though, what’s the point in arguing something like that. 

“I’m going to train you, okay?” Shego whispers. “I’m going to get you ready, and I’m not letting you out of my sight. Are you okay with that?”

Kim heaves and raises her head to look directly into Shego’s eyes. Maybe Kim’s crazy, but Shego might be getting a little weepy too.

“I fucking hate how you bring out my—feelings, blegh,” Shego sticks her tongue out, and Kim giggles faintly. “Go enjoy your time with your fam tonight, see them off, and I’ll come to you tomorrow, okay?”

Kim nods, and she realizes then how fucking lonely she’s been for the past week. Shego is the only one who knows her. 

“Yeah,” Kim gulps. She nods as if that will make this feel any better. “Yeah.”

* * *

Kim faces Shego within a private room inside some gym Kim has now been forced to purchase a monthly membership with. The two women circle each other, both in tights and tank tops. Kim’s hair is tied back, Shego’s is down. Which oddly enough, intimidates the shit out of Kim. She hasn’t for real sparred with Shego in years.

“Confession for ya,” Shego crosses her arms confidently. “Literally, since like — day 1, I have wanted to train you.”

That takes Kim back a bit. “Train  _ me _ ? I was the one kicking your ass every week.”

Quick hint of lime flushes in Shego’s cheeks, but it leaves her fast. “Yeah yeah, well, it’s a helluva lot easier to critique other people’s form than your own, yeah? Did you have anyone training you?”

“Um,” Kim stretches to get limber. “At first, before we started. Then the missions came in so fast I had no time for training.”

“I figured,” Shego says. “Betty should have had someone come in to train you, not cool everyone let you freelance like that. You were a kid.”

Kim agrees but she doesn’t really want to get into it right now, she’ll just get mad. “Yeah, I know what you mean about like, noticing other people’s flaws more than your own. Sometimes, I would like, fight you guys, and think about what you could have done better to like, actually pull it off.”

Shego clicks her tongue. “Judgy, judgy, Kimmie. Did you ever think about, like, doing the villainy thing?”

Kim blushes. “Maaaaaaaaaaaybe we should just start training.”

“Ooh,” Shego purses her lips. “I am making a mental note to get some follow-up on this spicy topic. But sure, let’s hop to it. We’re here today because you nearly got yourself killed a week ago. How did that happen?”

Kim leans back on her bare feet, flexing her arms. “I didn’t kill my targets, and it bit me in the ass.”

“And why didn’t you kill them?” Shego mimics Kim’s stance. 

“Um, are we just going to talk, or are we going to brawl?”

Shego raises an eyebrow. “I need to rewire your brain if I’m going to get you to where I want you.”

_ Where I want you _ . A little possessive for Kim’s taste. Kinda reminds her of Ron. 

“It just didn’t feel necessary,” Kim says quickly. “Even with, like, Cagan, I feel bad…”

“Whoa—what?” Some anger flashes in Shego’s eyes. “Princess, have some self-respect. Dude was a total asshole.”

“I guess,” Kim shrugs. “Apparently I ruined his life or something, back in the day.”

“They always say that shit,” Shego shakes her head. “That was a guy who wasn’t worth shit. Even if he  _ didn’t _ hospitalize you like that—”

Kim can remember looking up at his sneering face in the dark. Her vision was blurry, and her body hardly worked. He laughed at her while she tried and failed to line up a shot at his face.

The nightmares of him haven’t hit her subconscious yet, but she knows he’ll never be forgotten. 

“—he’d still be totes okay to ax,” Shego finishes. “But you didn’t. You didn’t kill him or any of his people because you didn’t want to.”

“It’s not because I didn’t want to!” Kim snaps. “I just—I just—god. Shit.” 

Shego’s arms fall to her sides. “What’s wrong? Talk to me.”

Kim shakes her head, looking at the ground. “Ron killed people you know. After Lowardia. He never admitted to it, never acted like anything was wrong. He just killed like, the most random goons so arbitrarily, like he didn’t care who he did it too. And… I don’t want to—” She locks eyes with Shego, and wipes the hair from her face. “—I’m sorry, can we get to fighting?”

Shego’s jaw tightens. “Yeah. I guess. Just understand that like, I’m going to be better at training you physically but there’s a lot of mental work you’re going to have to come to terms with.” She leans back, positioning her hands. “You’re _ nothing _ like him, Kim.”

Kim hates feeling so unsteady on her own feet. It was never like this back in the old days, back when it was fun All she had to do was move and trust her instincts, and she would come out on top. Now her instincts are what might get her killed. Almost got her killed, infact. 

Kim lunges at Shego, fists darting in for viper strikes, withdrawing just as fast. Shego blocks each of the blows with the puffy guards she has over her hands, and Kim feels her arms shake with each impact. Shego’s body is so reinforced by her powers that it’s like trying to knock a brick wall over. So Kim hits harder and harder, she smiles to herself when she notices Shego’s elbow crunching in, and goes for an uppercut. 

Shego clicks her tongue and slips past Kim, grabs her by the waist, and spins her through the air, tossing her onto a nearby mat. Kim crashes into a non consensual body slam, and scrambles to her feet. “You fare better in group fights,” Shego calls out without any emotion. “You overthink things when one on one, and you telegraph constantly.”

Kim narrows her eyes and charges at Shego like a fucking bull. Headfirst, she crashes in to gut Shego in the stomach, but those strong, green arms stop her in place by hooking her by the shoulders. Kim gnashes her teeth, trying to isolate herself from predictability and moves with the flow of Shego.

Kim lifts her feet up high, pivoting them over her whole body and claps her ankles against Shego’s neck and manages to topple both of them. They both hit the mat and roll off each other, rising at the same time. 

“Better. You’re good with your legs,” Shego pants, pulling a hair tie off her wrist and winding her hair back. Finally. “A bit more pressure on the neck and you could potentially twist it out like that.”

Kim flinches. She never thought of that as a killing stroke. But she supposes that’s the point of this. Try to kill the woman she can’t physically kill.

Shego snaps her fingers and emerald pinpricks hit the walls all over private room and ignite into a hailfire of flames that fly at Kim like bullets. Shego smirks and darts in. Kim somersaults backwards, narrowly avoiding three embers that would have hit her right up the spine, simultaneously dodging a kick to her jaw.

“You’re lucky the other goons didn’t get up when you were up against Sally,” Shego smirks. “Otherwise  _ this _ would have been the sitch, try to take me out.”

Kim grimaces and misses one ember that nails her in the cheek. Burns like a bitch for a second, reminding her of those awful pinches Ron would give her before it got really bad, and then it goes numb. Just like how it did with Ron. Kim tries to tell herself this is different, it’s consensual. Sort of.

“Boom, you just died,” Shego shakes her head and leans onto her back heel. “Come get me.”

Kim darts ahead but can barely make progress, there’s too many kill zones crossing her path and she has to back off, looking for an opening. All the while, Shego paces back and forth with so much confidence, staring at her as if daring her to just jump on through.

Then one blast nails right in the ass. She yelps as another strikes her elbow, and though it doesn’t hurt _ that  _ much, she’s so tense it sends a spasm up her. Another blast to the shoulder and she completely loses her balance.

Flames shift behind Shego and show her the number  _ 2 _ . Shego smirks, “This is just like  _ Edge of Tomorrow _ , we’re going to count how many times you die.”

Kim screams something primal and charges forward, being really careful to avoid the ‘gunfire’ aimed at her. They aren’t really the blockade Shego wants them to be, the openings are obvious. The only thing holding Kim back is how each burn triggers her traumatic memories of Ron. She wants to scream at Shego to stop, but Kim knows she’ll start having a breakdown if she dares do that. She needs to hold it together, she needs Shego to think that Kim’s stronger than she really is. 

Kim bobs in and out, she gets better at dodging, but it’s not enough to get close to Shego. She ducks and twists and leaps and it’s not getting her any progress. If she charges through, it might be okay, but then she’d have to watch that  _ 4  _ bump into a  _ 5 _ , when  _ 1  _ is bad enough.

There’s a shift in the energy and it’s as if several pinpricks coagulated into one solid hand that flies through the air to backhand Kim. She’s not even sure if it’s even real or just her imagination, but it makes her howl. 

Never again. 

Kim twirls past the backhand in a magnificent pirouette, and does something she’s never dared try before — she reaches out and grabs the phantom hand by the wrist, and has her other hand grip a finger and she pulls back on it like she’s trying to start a lawnmower.

_ Crack! _ and  _ boom! _ It dies — and Kim notes that it really wasn’t a hand as it fades, just a flame that gave Kim flashbacks. She somersaults back, her palm ignited into numbness, and lands behind Shego. 

Kim moves faster than the green woman, and dodges her fist. Kim grabs it mid-flight and pulls Shego’s arm out, and twists it hard, stopping before it gets serious. “Boom, broke your arm,” Kim mutters. Next, she sends her elbow up to Shego’s jaw, resting the tip to Shego’s nose, and the green woman does Kim a solid and mimes falling over from such a hit.

Kim spins around and cocks her imaginary gun and points it at Shego’s hand, pantoming the shot, accidentally whispering, “ _ Bang, _ ” under her breath like a total nerd.

Shego quirks a smirk at Kim as a fiery  _ 1 _ bursts into life on Shego’s chest. “Unfortunately, Kimmie,” Shego rests her head to the floor. “I’m out, but my boys are still on you.”

Kim hears a loud flare and freezes in place as everything around her goes green, an entire sphere of green pinpricks hovering an inch away from her skin. In the tiny gaps, Kim can see her death count spiking into numbers she can’t even keep track of. 

Her knees quake and she can’t hold it in any longer. She’s numb. Head to toe she’s numb, it’s too much, she feels so much inside but her body can’t capture any of it. It’s too reminiscent of how it felt after she had arguments on the phone with Ron. She falls against the mat beneath her. She hears Shego’s soft laughter, and it makes her think of Ron’s mean cackling. She doesn’t cry, but her head surges from pain. 

She deserves this. Ron was good, and he still hit her because she must have been a really shitty person. And it’s the same again, she dies and dies and dies because she’s not good at what she does. 

“ _ Kimmie _ ?” Shego’s voice sounds like it’s miles away. “ _ I didn’t — — — it, did — —?” _

Kim cranes her neck up to lock eyes with Shego and sniffs. She doesn’t want Shego to think she’s getting so frustrated about losing, because it’s not that. 

Too bad she can hardly hear anything Shego is saying. This is probably a panic attack. 

Shego wraps her arms around Kim’s shoulder and Kim feels nothing. She rocks back and forth in those arms, her mouth open and eventually she notices that there’s this high pitched keening sound that she’s sure is coming from her. 

“ _ You’re safe, Kim _ ,” Kim hears Shego whisper, and it feels good to hear someone talk to her. Kim nuzzles her forehead against Shego’s and tries to calm down. Shego’s arms run against her body, but they can’t protect her. Kim knows that.

Ron could just reach across the world right now and snap her neck. She’s never really safe. Even when Shego locks lips with Kim right then and there, she feels nothing. She can’t.

* * *

Kim lies in bed for hours after she gets home, and skips class again. Whenever Ron hit her, she would hide under her blankets, hoping he wouldn’t find her. It made no sense, she knew that, but the dark was peaceful to her. So she tries that again tonight.

She feels ashamed of what went down with Shego, and feels so guilty that it definitely made Shego feel like shit. Shego didn’t know that was one of Kim’s triggers, and still doesn’t because Kim didn’t comment on it. She just got really quiet and slipped away once it was okay.

There’s always  _ something _ to freak out over with Kim. She can’t let it go, she can’t move on. Even if he never touches her again, she won’t be able to forget. She’ll always freeze when someone makes a sudden movement towards her, she’ll always go numb like this.

She wishes he were dead. She wishes she had the nerve to just shoot him through the skull and end him. 

Though there’s a voice at the back of her head telling her that won’t work either, that his voice will haunt her nightmares if she does that. In a very literal way too. She’s sure his powers are something that can live beyond even death itself.

Suddenly, Kim’s entire body quavers. Her hairs stand on end, and she wants to burrow deeper. She feels his aura coming to her.

Her door creaks open and Kim throws the blanket off herself, hand digging under her pillow to scoop her revolver out. 

“Hey, Kim,” Erica says and Kim promptly deflates. Erica’s face falls though and she looks super concerned. “Um, are you sick or something? I can go out and buy you some medicine if you’d like…”

“N-n-no,” Kim stutters. “J-just a… a rough day, honestly.”

Kim pulls her hand out from under the pillow without the gun and rests it on her sweatpants. “What’s up? Sorry I’m hogging the room, you can hang in here too, if ya want…”

“It’s okay,” Erica sighs, mouth crinkled. She’s the only roomie trying to make it work with Kim right now. “I came in because there’s this boy outside, waiting for you…”

Kim feels herself sweat again.

“He looks like that guy you used to be with a lot on TV… that’s Ron, isn’t it?” Erica asks softly. “I can tell him to go away.”

Kim grimaces and shakily gets to her feet. “No, I can… I need to handle this. He’ll keep coming back otherwise, the fucking creep.”

Erica reaches over and brushes some of the hair out of Kim’s eyes. “Well, I’m here for you as back-up if you need me, okay?”

“Thanks.”

They do a quick hug together, and Kim steps away, moving into the common area and eying the door warily. She can’t believe he’d stalk her like this, it’s  _ so _ not okay. 

Kim opens the door and almost starts yelling right off the bat, but freezes at the very sight of Ron. He looks like shit. Dark brown stubble all across his lip and cheeks, eyes bloodshot and  _ blue _ , mixing into this noxious purple. He frowns at her. “Hey KP,” he whimpers.

“Um… hi,” she sighs. “Ron, um… I’m sorry but this is inappropriate. I don’t want you here. Ever.”

Ron just kinda stares at her, almost like he didn’t hear that. “Sorry, KP,” he whines. “I just figured you’d want to talk to someone… since you, ya know, killed that guy.”

Kim blinks.

Shego wasn’t very sympathetic when Kim tried to get into it, and she’s still processing it.

Dammit. She needs to talk to someone about it. She really does. And Ron is standing right there, apparently willing to listen.

“Alright,” she groans, throwing a coat on, already hating herself for allowing this.


	20. Chapter 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kim gets a lead.

Kim and Ron walk alongside each other in silence. It’s dark out, so really, this is like, not safe. At all. This is stupid. She hopes he doesn’t try anything, she doesn’t want anyone to know that she chose to walk with him. 

At least by keeping him in public, he can’t hit her without starting a scene. He doesn’t have the guts. 

The snow crunches under her boots. She should’ve worn a hat. The flakes are melting in her hair.

“So,” Ron sighs. “Um. I don’t really know how to approach this.”

“Yeah,” Kim says gruffly. “It’s hard to talk about.”

“You wanna stop walking for a second?”

She eyes him and shakes her head, continuing to walk. “I feel like a bad guy.”

He raises an eyebrow. “Because you killed someone who was trying to kill you?”

She narrows her eyes. “If you’re going to give me shit, I’m going home.”

“Fine,” he snorts.

“This kinda job I just did,” she has to keep casting lines out to figure out how to describe things. “It’s not… my normal.” She groans, digging her gloves deeper into her pockets. “It’s not what I do.”

This is ridiculous, why should she care what Ron thinks of her?

“Oh?”

“Yeah, usually I’m doing things that are like, helpful, for society,” Kim knows that sounds so stupid, but what else is she supposed to say? “That was a mob hit, some kinda clean-up from an old job someone never finished. And they’re upset with me now because I only killed one guy, and I wasn’t even planning on that.”

Ron stops in place, and she groans, digging her gloves deep into her coat to turn around to face him, jittering in place. 

“That sucks,” is all Ron says, and that actually feels really reassuring. She hates when people give her advice, unless she asks for it, that is. “I’m sorry you had to go through that. Must’ve been traumatizing for you.”

Kim nods, hugging her chest, teeth chattering. 

“You know, I can heat you up, if you want,” Ron says. 

Kim eyes him suspiciously; she doesn’t like the sound of that. Warming Kim up is something Shego does, and she only does it because they’re dating. Having Ron do that for her just feels… gross. “No, I’ll be fine.”

“Whatever,” he rolls his eyes, shifting back into a walk. “I wanna pick up some snackage. There a Bueno Nacho out here?”

“It’s New York City,” her mouth drifts into a smile without her realizing.

His drawl shifts into a smirk when he looks back to her. “Okay, fair point. But where is it?”

“Around the corner, I kept us near one in case you asked,” Kim shakes her head. Ten minutes later, they’re sitting across each other, eating steaming hot, oily food. Kim actually makes more of a mess than Ron does, licking the juices off her fingers. 

“I, uh, don’t eat out much,” Kim explains. “So like, this is a big deal for me. You get like, double portions when you eat out.”

“Yeah,” Ron smirks, dipping his chips into like three different containers. Man knows what he likes. “Hey, um, I’m sorry for a lot of things, KP.”

God, she knew he’d pull this shit. She feels so dumb for letting him—

“Tonight though, I’ll just apologize for one thing, I know it’ll take time to heal and stuff,” Ron bows his head, and Kim feels herself softening like she always does when she’s in one of her cycles. “I’m sorry for killing people behind your back in that gap year. I wasn’t thinking of how it made you look, or how, just, not okay it was. You let me do missions because you trusted me and I violated that.”

Kim isn’t really sure what to say to that. It’s so long ago now, it’s not really something she’s focused on. She shrugs, and murmurs a quiet acceptance of his apology. She’d hate to be petty.

Ron winces and looks back at his food, probably regretting he brought it up. She already regrets accepting that apology, but she doesn’t want to take it back either. She feels bad.

This is Ron’s playbook though. This is how he manipulates her.

She really needs to change the subject before this falls into their usual pattern. “So,” she starts, not exactly knowing where this is going. “Have you been working on any solutions for your Monkey problem?”

Ron blinks a few times, like he doesn’t know what she’s talking about. Of course he didn’t work on it like she asked him to.

“Um, honestly, KP,” Ron pales a shade. “It’s sorta hard. What you’re asking for is huge—like, if I did this—it’d be a big deal for Yamanouchi. Because y’know, I’m intertwined in this dumb prophecy and shit.”

“So you’re just going to give up?” Kim snaps.

“Whoa, whoa!” Ron throws his hands up. “Let me finish. Geez, Kim. Jumping down my throat like—sorry, I’m being an asshole.” He itches the back of his neck and looks away. “I’m trying to tell you that Sensei isn’t going to tell us shit, it’s not in his interests to let me blow up my own powers. I doubt there’s anything at Yamanouchi that can help us.”

Kim’s face falls. “Oh. I didn’t think of that.”

“It’s cool,” Ron shrugs. “Not exactly your scene.” 

Ron stays very still, and Kim groans, because she’s too good at reading him: he has a great idea, he just wants her to ask him about it.

“Keep talking, Ron,” she shakes her head with a smile, not knowing why these classic Ron-isms are making her happy. Isn’t that fucked up? 

“Okay, so,” Ron splays his hands out. Damn, he’s _ really _ excited about this. “Monkey Fist.”

Kim waits for him to explain, and then he doesn’t, so she nods. “That’s all you got?”

“Yeah,” he grins, so pleased with himself.

She sighs. “Okay I’ll bite, you think he’d know? Seems to me like he’s throwing spaghetti at the wall to steal your shit, his last caper wasn’t going to work, I can promise you that.”

“Well,” Ron folds his arms behind his head. “He’s the dude who wants my powers, I’m sure he’s researched the Hell out of it. He could at least tell us what to  _ not _ do.”

Kim thinks about that. She probably has leverage over Fiske somehow, even though he’s been safely returned home in exchange for all the intel he squealed on. She could hypothetically go talk to him and get some details. 

“So basically, you’d go to him,” Ron gestures wildly with his hands now. “Tell him, like, you want my powers, pretend to be an evil horrible scary villain, and ask him how to do it. And then make a deal or whatever.”

Kim raises an eyebrow. “You know, I can’t just—like—make a deal out of thin air. Also I’m not evil.”

Ron just crosses his arms, looking awful smug. He raises his eyebrows.

“I guess I’m an assassin now, cool… and I could probably make something work,” she flashes a smile. “So you’re taking me seriously then?”

He folds his elbows onto the table and leans in, head bouncing along. “Oh yeah, these powers have messed me up and… I’d like to get better. And this is step one right, heh heh?”

Part of her feels so  _ guilty _ for doing this with him today. It’s not okay. He hurt her, they should never speak again. But she can’t deny the lightness in her chest, and she undeniably sleeps better than night too.

She just needs to be more clear about boundaries next time. Set some rules to follow.

* * *

Montgomery Fiske is based out in London nowadays, so flying out just to talk to him with the  _ chance _ that he  _ might _ know something isn’t going to fly. Maybe when she was a kid and people threw money at her, but not anymore. Not when she needs to work to be  _ discreet _ . Plus, Hank would never give her that kind of budget.

So Kim does what any millennial would do — she sends Fiske a vague Google Calendar invite. Guy really needs to take his Gmail off his Linkedin. Fiske promptly emails her back with a simple ???

Kim says nothing, casting her bait. A few days later when it’s time to talk, she ends up on the Google Hangout to find him waiting for her, having arrived a few minutes early. Definitely not what she expected, she put pretty little thought into this, tossing a blazer over her pastel purple pajama top, taking the call in the living room. She’s _pretty_ _sure_ no one is home, and this will likely be brief.

“Kim Possible,” he snorts with so much frustration. “What could you possibly want from me? Have I not given enough?”

“Not really,” Kim says. “I want to do a thought exercise with you, and you’re going to help me.”

He flashes her a dark look and shakes his head. “I’ll help you— _ if _ you answer a question of my own.”

She doesn’t really have a choice, so she agrees to those conditions.

“Good,” Fiske coos. “I noticed in your portrayal of Stoppable, he was quite rude and aggressive. Far unlike the boy I knew long ago.”

She sighs and leans back. “Don’t try to tell me you weren’t tricked, I had you hook, line, and—”

“Ah ah ah!” he interrupts, voice almost knocking into the high pitched wail of a monkey embarrassingly enough. “Ahem, leftover of my primate days—no, I was duped I assure you. My assumption was that Stoppable had become corrupted by his phenomenal powers. Now, for my question.”

He pauses and lets that all sink in for her. 

“You didn’t need to portray him like that,” Fiske offers a limp wrist. “You could have made him as stupid and gullible as I’ve always seen, but you played him mean… for a reason, I suppose.”

Kim keeps her jaw clamped tight. He’s completely right, she didn’t have to do that. It’s just, that’s the Ron that haunted her, the one that erased the boy she fell in love with and was so close with. She could never play the old Ron, or else she might fall in love with him all over again. But she can’t tell Monty that.

“My, this is difficult for you,” Fiske chortles. “How about this then? You two obviously are separated, and I happened to notice that when you revealed yourself, you had a black eye. And I  _ know _ you hadn’t seen combat before our caper together.”

Kim says nothing, skin prickling all over.

Fiske smirks. “Very well, I must be correct then. I apologize if that’s triggering for you, I’m glad you’re staying away from him. We may proceed.”

Kim nods gently, restraining her emotions to the best of her ability. She thinks she does relatively well. On the fly, she decides to nix the thought exercise motif, he’s going to see right through it. It’s better to be honest. Unfortunately.

“I need to stop Ron. This isn’t a thought exercise anymore, he’s… dangerous—”

“—but you won’t kill him, will you?”

She hates how good he is at reading her. “—yes. I probably should, but I’m starting with the Mystical Monkey Powers. I want to take them away. How would I do that? Your trick with the ruby wasn’t going to work, I can say that almost for certain.”

Fiske nods and takes some time to think now, processing all that. He laughs to himself and shakes his head, expression much warmer now. He speaks to her like she’s a comrade of his. 

It reminds Kim of what Shego told her back at the Bermuda Triangle:  _ We respect the hustle. You don’t hustle? You don’t get it. Ya feel me, sweetcakes? _

“It’s true, I was aware the ruby would hardly work, but I wanted to chance it,” Fiske says. “There is another way, but I think it’s practically impossible by this point.”

Kim leans in with keen interest. Whatever he says, she’s going to prove it’s possible.

“There are four monkey idols, you helped me retrieve one if you can recall,” Fiske explains slowly, smiling more by the second. “Those are what gave Stoppable the powers, my assumption is they can be used to remove those powers.”

Kim thinks for a moment. That sounds logical… but there has to be a reason Fiske hasn’t tried it. “The idols are lost?”

“Yes, I own one still, bless the lord,” he kicks back now and reaches for his cup of tea. “When I was arrested shortly after my first brush with Stoppable, the artifacts were stolen and relocated and for the life of me, in the past — hm, eight years now — I’ve found  _ nothing _ .”

“Nothing,” Kim repeats. “Nothing at all?”

He shakes his head with that confident grin. “I’m familiar with your operation, Possible. You don’t have the resources you’d need to find them, I’m sorry.”

She grits her teeth, knowing that he’s right. If the man obsessed with finding them can’t do it… though it’s possible all this needs is a fresh pair of eyes. “Either way, I would appreciate it if I could take the idol you have.”

He laughs, as if this is so amusing. “I suppose I don’t see the harm. I’ll ship it to you. Might take a week or so, but I’m curious as to where this goes.”

Kim wonders if Drakken ever had a call with Fiske that went like this, or any other villain. Because it feels like what’s going on right now, it’s so familial.

“Tell me,” Fiske continues. “Why?”

Kim blinks, she could stall and ask him what he means, but she knows he’s confused as to why she’s back in action. “It’s what I do. It’s what I’m good at, and it’s all I know.”

“Don’t I know how that feels,” he smirks again. “I tried going legit, if you can recall. But it’s just so easy to go into that place in your head once you know how to access it. Still though, I’m shocked that you of all people would be doing this. You were famous, and spent your days fighting people like me. Now you—”

“I get it,” Kim interrupts, smiling for some reason. She likes this? “I appreciate the personal analysis but I’ve processed it already, Monty.” She even blushes a little! God, ever since she switched sides, people have complimented her like never before in such a genuine way.

“So you have, you’re very strong, Miss Possible,” Fiske remarks. “So it is true then. You work for Big “Big” Daddy.”

Kim isn’t sure if she’s allowed to say, so she just shrugs.

“Have you met him?” Fiske says in a tiny voice. He waits an anxious moment and then shifts his weight from one hip to the other. “I’ve always wondered who it is, of course, you shouldn’t tell me, it’d ruin the surprise.”

Right. Big “Big” Daddy is a secre and a presence in the criminal underworld. For Kim, he’s just Doctor Drakken. Kim still doesn’t see how those people are different yet.

Fiske smiles to himself, as if he’s content to leave the call now, when inspiration strikes. “Oh, one last thing, Possible. If I may.”

_ If I may _ ? Is Kim like… someone you have to say that too, now? 

Well, he seems to actually be waiting for her to give permission.

“Yeah,” she laughs. This is so bizarre.

“If you do secure the four idols and take Stoppable’s powers, do me a courtesy and let me know so you may become my new adversary, eh?” 

Part of her actually kind of likes the sound of that, too bad she’s going to destroy the idols once the powers are secured. 

“I’ll do that, Monty,” Kim says. “Thanks for the time. Seriously.”

The call ends and Kim immediately knocks back into her chair, staring up at the ceiling. She doesn’t notice one of her roommates giving her funny looks from the kitchen, and it’s not the first time.

She just needs to get three more idols, plus the one Monty already has… she can do that. She can figure this out. She’s Kim Possible, she makes things happen. She smiles to herself as she uses the burner phone Shego got for her to text her girlfriend the good news.


	21. Chapter 21

Kim rolls around with Shego under the sheets, it’s practically a redux of their first night together. So it’s not as good, but Kim practically  _ begged  _ Shego to burn all of her clothing off again. She’s also still weak from her beatdown with Cagan three weeks back now, and her jaw has a very limited range of motion.

Shego does introduce a new move though, she runs her hand down Kim’s back and ignites it with pleasure from top to bottom. But after a while, they’re both exhausted. Kim wishes she could top tonight but it’s just not there, so she just lays there panting, curling into Shego’s body. 

It’s… wonderful. She feels safe like this. Feeling Shego’s bare flesh. She’s already wrapped up in a suit, so protected from touch. Like this, they’re both as vulnerable.

“I like the new stuff,” Kim whispers.

“Cool,” Shego smirks to herself. “Honestly, it’s cool you, uh, like it.”

“Really? I mean it’s innately pretty nice,” Kim slides her chin onto Shego’s shoulder, holding her tight. “You have bad experiences?”

“Yeah,” Shego groans. “Lots of ladies running scared stiff from the green lady. It’s too much for them, but I guess I shouldn’t be  _ surprised _ that you can handle me.”

“Oh, I handle it,” Kim bites down on Shego’s neck gently, just little love bites. “I have good news.”

Shego suddenly flips over and rests her arms against the backboard of this fancy ass bed in this fancy ass hotel room. Kim rolls back on top of Shego, pressing down on her. “I have a great lead on the Ron case.”

“Oh,” Shego grunts, rolling her eyes. “You want to talk shop right now?”

Kim frowns. “Yeah, I’m excited about it. It’s been distracting me a lot, but I talked to Monkey Fist and—”

She explains the Monkey Idol sitch to Shego, how it’s very likely those are the exact things she needs to stop Ron. “—it might take years, but—I’m in for the long haul.”

Finally, Shego breaks into a smile. “I’m glad, Kimmie, that’s great. He, um, he hasn’t been bothering you, has he?”

Kim hesitates. Ron hasn’t exactly been  _ bothering  _ her persay… but he is in contact with her now, and Kim isn’t sure if she wants Shego to know that, because she knows how Shego will react. She’ll get all defensive and maybe smother Kim with more kisses, but that’s not really how she wants it to go down. So she switches topics, with the nagging thought that her contact with Ron is probably unhealthy and she should know better than to enable him.

“These hotel rooms are so expensive, huh?” Kim asks, tracing little circles on Shego’s breasts.

“Oh, um,” Shego bends her head back to look, blushing because she was definitely just checking Kim out. “Hotel is… um… yeah, pricey. But like, we get paid so much it’s not a big deal.”

Kim presses her lips into a thin smile, finally rolling off Shego and landing besides her. She pulls the blanket back over her, her heated body cooling down. “I haven’t actually used any of mine yet.”

“Really?” Shego raises an eyebrow. “You’ve done, what? Museum heist, Global Justice heist, Monkey Fist heist, nuke thing with Falsetto Jones, and this Cagan crap. Five missions? Kimmie, you’re probably loaded.”

“Yeah,” she sighs wistfully. “I’m just… um… nervous.”

“Nervous. About spending money?”

“About spending  _ a lot _ of money, yeah,” Kim looks away.

She has a secret bank account that Hank set up for her, complete with its own black debit card. It’s in her wallet right now, she just hasn’t taken it out yet.

“I don’t know what to spend it on,” Kim admits. “The obvious thing is a new place to crash, my, um, roomies haven’t been… the best lately.”

“Oy, they messy?”

“No, they’re—” she rolls away and stares at the lamp. “—scared of me.”

“Oh shit, Kim.”

“Yeah,” Kim says softly. Her girlfriends have been so important to her. They have supported her through so much, especially the break-up and now most of them won’t even look at her. 

She tells herself most days that she should leave because she doesn’t need to live in a place like this anymore, and that someone with less money should take the cheap rent room but it’s not that at all.

“I might drop out of school too,” Kim sighs. “It doesn’t make sense for me to be there, and, and, with the roomies it’s just like… that’d be everything. I wouldn’t even need to stay in New York.”

Shego’s fingers hook onto Kim’s shoulders, gently doing their thing.

“I’m not scared of the work we do or anything,” Kim frowns. “But I’m worried I’ll lose myself in it. If I walk away from everything I had before—well—it’ll be easier.” She bites her lip. “Sorry, I’m getting too dark. We don’t have to talk about it…”

“Kimmie,” Shego flips over Kim and thumps besides her, looking at her seriously. “If you need to talk about something, you need to talk about it, and you can talk about it with me. Uh, and as someone who has been feared before—I get it. It sucks. You keep telling yourself that your old friends are just making shit up in their heads, and then you think about the people you’ve killed…”

“Yeah,” Kim interrupts. “Yeah, same page, you don’t need to… um, yeah. Yeah.”

A finger pokes Kim’s chin and gently lifts her face back up. Shego’s smiling. “You’re still the Kimmie I know, okay? And I got your back.”

Ron used to say that a lot,  _ I got your back, KP. _ But he really didn’t. Shego’s not like that though.

“I want to spend more time with you,” Kim says abruptly. “I don’t like that we don’t get to see each other that often. I guess—if I did leave my current living sitch it would be easier.”

“No,” Shego takes both of Kim’s hands in hers. “You don’t need to change your whole life to be with me. You’ve already done that like six times over. I’ll figure something out.”

Kim opens her mouth, but there isn’t really anything to say, so she just breathes and snuggles in closer with Shego. Eventually, she falls asleep

and it’s nice.

* * *

Kim keeps getting distracted by the snowfall, it’s just so pretty, especially when you’re this high up in New York. It’s wild how Christmas is already around the corner. Honestly, she’s not ready for it. After seeing her parents twice in the past month, she’s getting overwhelmed. Why are these holidays so close together anyways?

It’s Final’s week too, making things even worse. Kim is definitely planning on coasting through on Cs, which is why she’s at Bonnie’s penthouse and not the library. Library would help her be more focused, but Bonnie’s penthouse makes her feel happy. She likes seeing how successful Bonnie is.

Bonnie comes in from behind and surprises Kim with a shoulder massage through her thick ass woolen sweater. It makes Kim giggle. But it also makes her feel a little guilty. “Hey,” she says at the same time Bonnie also says “Hey.”

Kim spins around and sees Bonnie clad in her pajamas with two hot chocolates in hand. “I’d say you go first, but you’re about to offer me a hot chocolate,” Kim smirks. “Please and thank you.”

Bonnie slides into the seat with Kim, handing over the mug to her. “What’s up with you? I saw you in the news a few times, and got kinda worried.”

“Yeah,” Kim sighs. Bonnie did text Kim a few times, and she did a bad job responding. She also told her not to come to the hospital for her. Something about seeing Bonnie while in that state just didn’t feel right. “I’m hanging in there, um, I just wanted you to know though that—uh—heh, I’m seeing someone.”

Bonnie’s mouth immediately flips up into a smile. “You really like her, don’t you?”

“Huh?” Kim feels the heat in her cheeks, oof. She’s always so transparent. “Yeah, I do. How do you know it’s  _ she _ ?”

“Easy,” Bonnie sips from her mug, leaving her lips imprinted at the top. “You prefer women when you’re being a sad girl. Is it Shego?”

Kim grins. “Yeah, I made it work out.”

Bonnie pats her on the shoulder and moves to bring over a chair for herself.

Kim’s glad that went over well, could’ve been worse. Granted, Kim feels kind of bad now for expecting Bonnie to jel or something. 

Kim looks back out to the snow. “We met through work, or like, she brought me in.”

“Oh,” Bonnie says over the loud creak of chair legs dragging against the tiled floor. “Through work, so…” She lands besides Kim and rests her elbows on the back of the chair. “...is it okay for me to ask?”

Kim turns back to see her. “You’re putting some pieces together.”

“Yeah,” Bonnie frowns. “You weren’t ambushed by mobsters, you were after them, weren’t you?”

Kim technically isn’t supposed to comment, like officially, but she just shrugs. It’s only Bonnie. “Yeah. I kinda fell into all this. That’s why I’ve been kinda distant.”

“Hm,” Bonnie sips more of her hot chocolate. “That would check out, I guess. I’m assuming you’re on a break now?”

“Sort of,” Kim looks back to her ‘studies’ which aren’t studies at all. “I have to crack a case before I can do a mission, unless something comes up but I’m not expecting them to give me anything for a while.”

“That’s good,” Bonnie sighs. “You like it?”

“Yeah.” It’s too complicated to really explain without giving away the details. “Are you like… okay with me talking more about it?”

Bonnie shrugs. “Whatever’s clever.”

Kim looks back at her, thinking. There’s something Bonnie wants to ask, but won’t. Possibly because she’s trying to be considerate, but damn, she can see the question right there.

It’s the way Bonnie’s eyes aren’t really focused, and the way her mouth crinkles, her shoulders slightly hunched, the tentative way she sways back and forth. She’s confused, because Kim is aloof, and she’s worried why Kim is telling her  _ now _ because—like—they’re together now? Would Kim have told her earlier if they had hung out? 

Suddenly, this stretch of time is expanding in both of their minds. Are they growing apart? 

Kim doesn’t want that. Bonnie’s her best friend.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner,” Kim says and smiles when she notes the relief in Bonnie’s face, the way she just slightly gasps inadvertently. “Really truly, B.”

“K, it’s cool,” Bonnie musses Kim’s hair. “I miss you.”

Last time Kim saw Bonnie, it was because Ron had just hit her. 

Yet Ron is the one Kim had dinner with the other night. C’mon Possible, get your priorities straight. 

“So this piece is actually confidential,” Kim says, nuzzling closer to Bonnie and letting her see what’s on her laptop. “I’m looking for monkey idols.”

“Monkey idols?!” a high pitched voice that’s definitely not Bonnie squeaks.

Kim whirls around and sees a gaping Junior. Shit. “Junior, get out of here.”

“Yeah Junior,” Bonnie spits out automatically. “Go watch TV or something.”

Junior frowns and walks away like a Charlie Brown character on a bad day. 

Well.

That was easy.

“Monkey idols,” Kim repeats. “I need four of them, but they’re a bitch to find.”

“Monkey… idols…” Bonnie repeats to herself. “Doesn’t Ron have monkey powers—”

Kim just gives her a look.

“Oh,” Bonnie nods. “I—wow, okay. You’re really working, then.”

“I am,” Kim doesn’t mean to sound so cold. It’s just, this shit is gnawing at her noggin. She has no clue how to find something like this, but to be fair, she’s basically just been Googling “monkey idol” and refreshing every time she doesn’t find what she wants.

Honestly, she needs help. She needs someone  _ smart _ .

Which means Wade.

But that doesn’t feel right, it wouldn’t be fair for him. Come to think of it though, she misses Wade too. She keeps telling herself it’s okay, she’s been busy with work and Shego—but she doesn’t even see Shego that much. Maybe twice a week tops.

How is it possible that she’s even more alone now? That’s so effed. But it seems to be the case.

“Monkey idol,” Junior harumphs, standing behind them with crossed arms. His face is screwed up in indecisiveness.

Bonnie turns on him. “Junior, what the fuck did I tell you to—”

“I know where one might be,” Junior sticks his nose in the air.

Kim turns on him now, eying him suspiciously. “Are you just saying that because you want to be included?”

He pauses to consider that. “Yes. But it is true.”

“Ugh, okay, I’ll bite,” Kim sighs. Desperate times and all that.

“Father purchased one as of late,” Junior grins. “It was expensive so he had to have it. It’s on display in our villain’s villa.”

“Junior, you’re hardly a villain anymore,” Bonnie pats him on the shoulder. “Let it go.”

“I know,” he pouts.

Kim leans back, thinking. It’s that easy, huh? Senior just has a monkey idol lying around… if she can get confirmation on that by a more reliable source, she could almost certainly have half of the monkey idols in the next two weeks.

Maybe this won’t be so bad. “Thanks, Junior,” Kim sighs begrudgingly. “I’m going to try to steal it, to give your father something to do. Don’t tell him.” 

“Okay.” God he’s such a pushover. It makes her feel sorry for him. 

Kim looks back to Bonnie and grips her hand. “Well, my research is done. Wanna grab some food with me?”

Bonnie frowns. “Don’t you have studying to do?”

Kim shakes her head and slips her jacket back on. “C’mon. Let’s catch up.”


	22. Chapter 22

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At the time of posting, I have four chapters set-up. My plan is to post one a day until I'm out, and then I'll probably bounce onto some other project. I've been spending more time with my original fiction lately which is why I'm not posting as much fic. : )

“Okay, so first off,” Kim stands at the front of the room, smiling at her audience: Shego, Big Daddy Brotherson, and Hank. They’re in the backroom to the Bermuda Triangle. Dingy and dark with a dusty pool table. “Thank you all for coming. I appreciate it.”

Hank leans back, arms crossed, half-amused.

“I must say,” Big Daddy leans in, hands pressed together. “I’ve never been included in planning before so this is exciting for me. What do you have in mind, Miss Possible?”

Kim eyes Shego for a moment, whom she’s already ran this over with, and clutches her pointing stick. Gulps, and starts flipping through the blueprints she was able to snag from her mission archives of the Senior’s Villa. 

“The easiest way to get into the mansion is on the pretense that we’re here to poach them as potential agents, that’s why I want you present Big Daddy… and if it’s not too big of an ask, I’d like Drakken to be present as well—”

“Why,” Hank snaps immediately, because  _ of course _ he has issues with this. 

“Because,” Kim tries not to bite her lip or show any other nervous tells. “We need to flatter him.”

“No, we’re not revealing Big “Big” Daddy’s identity to anyone,” Hank says with finality.

Kim eyes Shego who just smirks back; Shego did say Hank would act this way.

Rolling her eyes, Kim shrugs; she still doesn’t see the difference between Drakken and his new moniker, but it’s not worth bringing up. “Okay. So then Hank, I definitely need you there too. Two people makes it more official. Are you okay with that?”

Hank cocks his head back. “If Big Daddy is going…”

“Yes, my sweet,” Big Daddy blows a kiss.

“Okay,” Hank smiles warmly. “Go on.”

Kim grins and flips a page. “The two of you will enter with Shego. Shego will sneak off to steal something, there’s this diamond they got that’s pretty well known. I was thinking we hit that.”

“We’re pretending to audition them,” Shego explains. “Clever, right?”

“Aaaah,” Hank plays his fingers against his armrests. “Meanwhile,  _ you _ pull off the real heist, I presume?” He looks at Kim.

“Yes, there’s an entrance only openable from the inside that Shego can spring for me once she starts her heist, it’s en route to her destination so it should be fine,” Kim explains. “I think this plan is airtight. There’s some… complications with security but that’s the basic rundown. You stall, Shego steals something, comes to you, they fail the audition and you leave, having returned the diamond. I’ve timed it out, I’ll be out five minutes after you. But with all security attention focused on Shego, I think we’ll be fine.”

No one says anything after Kim finishes, which makes her kinda nervous. She rolls her hand against the pointing stick, hoping for some kind of approval so she get to work. 

“It’s not going to work out, Kimbo,” Hank says finally. Big Daddy nods.

“Wh-why?” Kim asks. In the corner of her eye, Shego looks at Kim with  _ I told you so  _ flourish. 

Hank gets up and moves up to the blueprints, flipping through them. “Because first off, they’ll be expecting  _ both of you _ , seeing how you two are both very familiar with the facility by now.”

“But…” Kim frowns. “...they won’t know I’m—”

“Kim,” Hank stands up ramrod straight. “Honey. Everyone in the game knows now. The Cagan Family was widely known in the underground as one of our rivals, and you killed the head of their family. You’d have to be oblivious to not know Kim Possible is part of the Bermuda Triangle. So yes, you’ll be expected, and when they realize it’s only Shego going after the most obvious thing locked up in that mansion, they’ll know something’s up.”

So they need a third pair of hands, Kim sort of anticipated this… but she hoped it wouldn’t come to this. Someone who’s  _ not _ her or Shego to run a heist, with Shego on security detail.

“Problem number two,” Hank flips through the pages fast, searching for something in particular. “The diamond is well-known, yes, but the Idol? No one knows about the Idol. Correct?”

“Y-yes,” Kim stammers, narrowing her eyes. “Oh.”

“Yes.  _ Oh _ ,” Hank sighs, finding it, the layout of rooms where the idol  _ might _ be. No certanties there. “Won’t it be  _ suspicious _ when it becomes obvious you’re after something so…” He gestures at the air. “...obscure?”

“Yes,” Kim groans, slumping up against the wall. “Shit, I should have thought of that.”

“Right, then all of a sudden the fake heist is a real heist,” Hank explains. “And you two will be split up. Big Daddy and I will need protection, so you’ll both get ambushed, as well as myself and Big Daddy. I understand what you’re getting at here, but there’s too many variables and we don’t have a deadline on this one, so… I’m sorry, Possible. We can do better.” 

Kim frowns, fidgeting. She’s really at a loss now. Aside from that  _ one idea _ that she  _ knows _ is the solution. 

Thankfully for her, Shego picks up on that, that Kim has one more idea up her sleeve, and gets to her feet. “Now hold the phone, Hank. We  _ can _ just add more people to the opp. A third set of hands, Hell, maybe even a fourth, makes the world of a difference.” 

Hank considers it, looking away to think.

Kim mouths a quick  _ Thank you _ over to Shego, who just shrugs in return. Both girls look to Hank patiently.

“No,” Hank sighs. “I’m sorry, no. Shego, you’re Top Tier and Possible you’re… no offense, Mid Tier. I don’t have anyone else in-between you two to station in a way that will make a difference.”

Kim snorts immediately. “ _ Mid Tier _ ? Excuse me—”

“I’m saying you don’t have powers,” Hank groans like he expected this outburst. “Shego’s our only meta-human, and when the problem is that we’re outnumbered _ and _ spread thin, powers are the solution.”

Kim doesn’t say anything. 

Hank smiles when it’s clear this is scrapped and turns away. “Big Daddy, you hungry? I’m hungry.”

“Famished,” Big Daddy grins. “Ladies, would you be interested in a double date?”

Kim starts to say  _ No _ when Shego cuts in with, “Yeah, sure. Sounds chill.”

Damn.

Hank pulls his coat on, as does Big Daddy. Meanwhile, Shego comes in from Kim’s side and looks at her. When Kim bows her face down further, Shego gently moves some of Kim’s hair away so she can see her better. 

“Yo. You okay?” Shego whispers.

Kim’s jaw tenses. “Stop. I have an idea.”

Hank and Big Daddy look back, quietly sitting back down and slipping out of their coats. Shego backs off, some uncertainty in her expression; she knows all about Kim’s plan except for  _ this _ .

“Ron Stoppable,” Kim speaks with caution. “Is extremely powerful and would make for a good asset.”

Hank groans and Shego growls, Kim holds a hand up to silence them. “I’m serious. The Seniors won’t not expect Ron to ever be fielded and he has the juice to back us up. Shego, you’d be with Hank and—”

“Kimmie,” Shego squeezes the bridge of her nose. “It’s not the strategy I’m bothered by.”

Kim sucks on her lower lip. “Okay, I know it’s risky but he  _ wants _ to help.”

Hank slides into one hip, crossing his ankles. “I don’t know. You seemed to not want to work with him a few months back.”

“We didn’t need him for the Fiske thing,” Kim waves a hand. “We need—someone, for this. Trust me. I can control him.”

Shego raises an eyebrow. “ _ You _ can control him? Huh.”

Kim blinks. Shego did  _ not _ just insinuate that. “Are you being serious right now?”

Shego shrugs. “Kimmie, he… Hank. Big Daddy. Do you mind?”

“Not at all,” Big Daddy gets up, waving for Hank to follow. “I trust your judgment, Shego. This is up to you.”

Hank snorts and straightens his tie, but nods along and leaves the room with Big Daddy. 

Shego immediately turns on Kim before she can defend herself. “He  _ abused _ you, and—I’m sorry, but you have to know he’s still manipulating you, even now, right?”

Kim turns away, moving her hair so it covers her face. “I know he is. I… I had lunch with him the other day—”

“...you what?!”

“—let me finish, please,” Kim reaches out and squeezes Shego’s hand. Shego snorts and turns away in a huff. Kim frowns. “He’s not really sorry, he doesn’t understand why what he did was wrong. He just knows it hurt me, and because he needs me to help him right now… trust me. I’m not doing this because I want him around.”

Twin wrinkles pull under Shego’s eyes. “Are you sure you’re not?”

Kim sighs. “I’m not. Sorry.”

Shego’s eyebrows bump up in surprise. “Oof, thanks for being honest but that’s a red flag.”

Kim squeezes her elbows. “Shego, I… I don’t know. I want to do this. And we need him for this one. I honestly don’t see a way around it, at least in a way where no one gets hurt.”

“Are you sure about that? Didn’t you say he used to kill people when he thought you and Wade wouldn’t notice?”

“He did, but I don’t think he will for this,” Kim shrugs. “I can be his handler this one time. Besides, I don’t think we  _ can _ kill Ron. Even if we wanted to.”

Shego leans in curiously. “Really?”

“I’ve been thinking about it,” Kim says tonelessly. “He should be dead. Statistically, he fucked up so much on our missions when we were kids, and he survived out of blind luck. Remember that whole Ron Factor thing?”

Shego rolls her eyes. 

“ _ It was his powers _ ,” Kim says meaningfully. “They didn’t figure it out, but that has to be it. His powers were preventing him from dying because… I don’t think he’s physically capable of dying like us. So we need the Idols. I know there are other missions I can run and be part of, but this… is important to me, Shego.”

Shego cracks a soft grin and reaches out to touch Kim’s cheeks. “Okay.”

“You sure?” Kim asks.

“No, but… I think this one time, okay. We can try it. There are… some precautions we’ll need to take. I’ll need to meet with him personally to make it very clear that he is to stick to your script. Or else.”

“Or else what?”

“He can’t come along,” Shego leans back. “I am not letting him hurt you, though fuck. I want to hurt him, Kim. I really do. Bastard.”

“I know,” Kim feels so drained. Just from talking. Just from words. “I’m sorry I met with him without telling you. It was kind of impromptu, he just… showed up at my apartment.”

Shego frowns. “Creep.”

“I know, I’ve made it clear to him that he can’t ever do that again,” Kim groans, kicking at the air. She thinks for a moment. “But it doesn’t mean anything. He can do literally whatever he wants. He can go back on his word with no repercussions. I need his powers gone, Shego. I’ll be able to sleep again.”

Shego doesn’t say anything, so Kim looks up and—damn, Shego’s eyes are glassy and her grip on the armrests is weak. She sucks on her lip and gets up with a start. “I’m going to bring them back in, okay?”

Kim feigns a smile that hurts. “Sure.”

* * *

A few days later, Ron comes in without much fanfare. They meet in a different place, some arbitrary Italian restaurant they rented out as a fake Bermuda Triangle. Ron cannot know where the real one is after all.

Ron laughs and cracks jokes while shaking hands with Hank and Big Daddy, decidedly not reading the room that he’s not particularly welcome here. He’s dressed like a ‘cool guy’ with a zipper-loaded leather jacket and sunglasses, his hair casually messy. There’s confidence oozing with his gait, and that intimidates Kim. 

It bothers her how he’s always been so… so…  _ fine _ . He never has problems. Bad things just bounce off him. He always seems so put together.

Ron steps into a backroom much like the one at the Bermuda Triangle, and takes a seat. 

Shego looks at Kim meaningfully, gesturing for her to step out, but no. Kim shakes her head and takes a seat besides Shego, and to make things very clear and transparent, takes her hand and squeezes it.

“I know this isn’t the real joint,” Ron drawls. “Next time, don’t put so much effort into tricking me.” 

Kim narrows her eyes and focuses. She can feel it, this phantom tendrils gently gliding through the air, stroking her head, reading her mind. She only recognizes it because she’s had so much… physical contract with his powers. “Stop,” she says suddenly. “Now.”

Ron whistles and leans back, pulling his powers back. 

Shego raises an eyebrow, not quite sure at what just happened, but shrugs it off.

“You are only here because of extenuating circumstances,” she says carefully, voice cutting like a knife. “Everything you learn here will be kept secret. Additionally.” She cocks her head to the side and raps her fingers against the armrests. “You will do as told and nothing more, nothing less. Any violations of this and I can make things very hard for you.”

Ron opens his mouth, but hesitates.

“That’s right, Stopstop, choose your words carefully,” Shego drawls. “If you hurt her in the slightest… if you even allow yourself the faintest passive aggression, I will destroy you.”

Ron clamps his jaw tight and nods, his anger is on his sleeve though. He’s not going to try anything nasty, he can’t. 

Still, she’s seen this dark expression far too many times, just never when she was with someone else. 

He only cornered her when they were alone. Coward.

“Oh, you’re mad, I can tell,” Shego hisses. “I feel it. I’m like you, I’m super-powerful, and your anger, your  _ power _ , is heating the room. Can you feel that Kimmie?”

Kim does feel it so she nods.

“I’m serious, Stoppable,” Shego cackles. “You don’t have a lot of wiggle room here. One mistake and you are out the door. And I know what you’re thinking—you’re more powerful than me, I can’t  _ make you _ do anything.” Her voice drips into this twisted seduction, it vaguely reminds Kim of her past with this woman. It  _ should _ scare her but if anything, it makes Kim want her so much more. “It doesn’t matter. I’ll squash you like a bug. Now. Blink twice if you understand.”

Ron sniffs loudly and leans back into his chair, fidgeting with his shoulders. His face scrunches up and he nods, blinking once. 

Then twice. 

“Good,” Shego coos. “Then we’ll speak of this no more. Let’s get to work.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next up: The Heist.


	23. Chapter 23

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> *mission impossible music*

Fuck, this is hard.

She’s done this before (obviously), it’s just—the pressure, ya know?

There’s this big honkin’ laser matrix that fills the room the moment Kim steals the diamond from its pedestal; at least this matrix doesn’t continuously move like the last one. It’s completely still, so she can strategize on where to move.

But still she sweats. She leaps from gap to gap, flipping and turning. She’d like to not burn anything. She has a feeling with these lasers any contact will make her flesh go numb for life, if not worse. 

It’s not until she’s halfway through, curled around one laser with another a centimeter from her lips, her body contorted into a spider-like formation, does she notice the problem: the door s’s shut. There wasn’t a door when she came in, it was open and now… door. Awesome.

“Ron,” Kim spits into her walkie. “Door. Now. Please.”

“ _ Uh, yeah, I can _ ,” Ron wheezes back. “ _ Hold on. _ ”

Kim rolls her eyes and leans into her wrist, very carefully lifting herself into the air, rolling her lower body into a ball to slip past several lasers, and then when it’s all clear, extends her legs up high in a handstand. With three flips she can get to the door no problem. She just needs to—

—leap—

—and flip—

—and not stumble when she falls; she lands with her armpits just about to brush against two lasers. Grunting, she moves forward, slowly. Door’s still shut. Not good. 

“Ron, any second now...”

“ _ I’m working on it! _ ”

She rolls her eyes again; Wade never has problems like this. She just needs to remember Ron’s not Wade, and to give him twice the lead time to get anything done. Even though Ron is physically ten times more capable than Wade. 

They’re already behind schedule last time she checked. He really needs to get going.

“ _ Something came up. _ ”

Her eyes widen. “What.”

“ _ Don’t worry, it’s fine,”  _ he moans like a teenager. _ “Focus on getting out of there. _ ”

“No shit that’s what I’m focused on.”

God this better be worth it. She only needs the diamond gone to later trigger an alarm for the wrong theft. She wants the minions to be looking for a diamond, not the idol. She reaches the door and taps on it. “Ron!”

“ _ Sorry, I just _ — _ there, finally. _ ”

It opens and Kim nearly gasps, but stops herself just as her throat starts to scratch. There’s a body slumped in the hallway besides Ron. Disarmed. Ron has the goon’s gun and he’s pointing it at a different goon down the hall.

Looks like Ron beat the other guy to the draw. 

“Ron,” Kim urges. “What the fuck.”

“I didn’t kill him,” Ron groans, like Kim is overreacting. “I’m thinking. Get closer, buddy. I’m not going to hurt you.”

Kim raises an eyebrow, because Ron doesn’t sound particularly honest. His tone is hostile, and his aim is direct. It’d be a headshot. Completely unneccesary. 

Ron’s in a suit. Like James Bond. With the gun in hand and that dark glint in his eyes, she has to turn away. It hurts too much. That she could have loved someone like him, that she could surrender so much to him.

Ron picks up on Kim’s agitation and hisses between his teeth, “Kim, what the fuck did you want me to do?”

“I don’t know,” Kim admits, sweating, her breathing loud. The second goon gets closer, with his arms in the air. “Let’s just knock him out.”

“What if he wakes up.” The gun clicks.

“Don’t you dare,” Kim growls. “When he wakes up, we’ll be loooong gone. Put it down, Ron.”

“Eh,” Ron shrugs. “I feel more comfortable with it drawn. Walk faster, buddy.”

Kim looks back to the guy; he’s petrified. Knees quaking. Almost certainly not trained on how to handle a situation like this. It makes her feel kinda bad. “Ron, give me the gun.”

“That gives him an opening,” Ron’s voice is steady.

“I don’t care, I don’t trust you. Give it to me.”

Ron seems to consider her, and then shakes his head. “No. Anytime now, dude!”

Shego was right the first time; this was a mistake.

Then there’s this distinctive crackle from her waist. She grabs at her walkie but it’s not her walkie that’s crackling. It’s...

Oh no.

“ _ Mr. Stonefellow _ ,” Senor Senior Sr. purrs on the second goon’s walkie. “ _ As we discussed prior, I believed that there would be a heist today for our diamond. You have not reported anything in, which is odd to me. Respond immediately. _ ”

‘Stonefellow’ goes white in the face, mouth opening wide, and then he freezes. Violently. His body crinkles like a puppet and he slumps over before getting back up, eyes wide and vacant. He says, “No sign of anything, sir.”

His voice is cold and distant. It looks painful.

What on Earth is—Kim looks to her right and steps back. Ron’s eyes are pure blue and he plays his fingers in the air like a ventriloquist. 

“ _ Very good _ ,” Senior replies. “ _ Last check-in. What is the password we agreed on? _ ”

Ron’s face scrunches up and his eyebrows pop. Bites his lip and the side of his mouth moves in unison with Stonefellow’s. “I Don’t Wanna Be a Complex Boy.”

“ _ Very good _ ,” Senior chuckles heartedly. “ _ I’ll check-in again later. As you were. _ ”

Click. 

Ron doesn’t hesitate and lunges forward, backhanding Stonefellow across the face and knocking him to the ground. The sound echoes off the walls but before it gets too far, Ron claws at the air with his hand and the echo just… dies. 

“Don’t,” Ron says immediately. 

Kim squeezes her palms, thinking. She should ask Ron to leave right now. But. She really doesn’t know what else he could have done in that scenario. “Did that… hurt him?”

“Probably,” Ron sighs, hoisting the goon over his shoulder. “I don’t think much about it.”

“I think you should,” Kim sneers. “What’s wrong with you?”

He groans and turns to face her. “It’s the powers, that’s what’s wrong with me. And I don’t think it’s worth wasting time dissecting that when we can just  _ go _ .”

“Do you see me slowing down?” she spits. “We can’t just  _ go _ , we’re handling the mess you made.”

Ron makes a face and picks up the second guy. “You know what? You can shut the fuck up, Kim.”

That really takes the wind out of her. She flinches as he steps closer.

“You know why I did that? For you. Normally I’d kill him but  _ you _ —won’t let me. _ So _ . I made the best choice I could and you’re still railing on me. Thank God we broke up, you’re such a bitch.”

Kim bites her lip, almost drawing blood. She hates him so much. Her limbs shake but she suppresses it and stays still. She’s better than this, she won’t stoop down to his level.

He smirks when she doesn’t say anything. “Tsch. Typical. Whatever, KP.”

He has  _ no _ idea how hard it is to be quiet like this. Not able to stomach looking at him, she takes the lead, walking forward with purpose. They stop along the way to dump the bodies somewhere and though Kim stands in the front, she doesn’t feel in charge.

She feels… small. And she starts to feel guilty about picking a fight with Ron back there. She could have waited for a better time to bring these issues up. But she got so snippy with him right away. Like a little girl.

She glances back at him and looks Ron over again. The suit is really nice, it brings out his stern posture and the harder edges of his jaw and chin. It makes sense. He’s even willing to pull the trigger and she’s not. He’d be a better agent than her, she bets.

She’s wearing a leather get-up, open jacket with a black turtleneck, and she feels ridiculous. Like she’s playacting. Then she feels even worse for spiralling like this, she hasn’t even drank anything and she’s…

She takes in a deep breath. She likes what she does and she’s good at it. Ron’s the one fucking this up, not her. And she’s dating Shego who’s nice to her. It’s fine. She can suck it up for a half hour more before she kicks him off the team for good. 

They get to the iron door that separates them from the room with the Idol. This is it.

Ron takes a knee and flames spit from his finger, melting the iron before him. This is something he can do that she can’t. An op like this would take hours and they obviously don’t have that. She kneels behind him, waiting. It brings her back, sort of. To the old days.

They’re not talking or doing any kind of banter though, so it’s not really the same. It makes her kinda sad. 

* * *

Finally, Ron burns a hole out of the door and slips into the room. Kim follows and steps into a massive spherical room with a seemingly bottomless pit. A thin walkway leads to a platform in the center where the Idol is waiting. Very sci-fi.

Ron waves at the air, seemingly deactivating whatever traps are set for them, then he looks back at her. 

“Hey, I think…” he gulps, cheeks paling. “You should get the Idol, not me.”

Kim raises an eyebrow. 

“It’s just,” Ron looks away. “I don’t think I can touch it.”

Well that doesn’t clarify anything. So Kim says, “Um.”

“Just a hunch,” Ron shrugs. “Don’t worry, the traps are gone. It’s clear. Just go to the center, take it, and we’ll go.”

“Don’t you at least want to try?” Kim asks, and off Ron’s subsequent silence, snorts. “Look who I’m talking to.”

Ron still doesn’t say anything and presumptuously backs off to lean up against the door with crossed arms. Kim rolls her eyes and moves forward, plodding slowly across the bridge, but it only takes her a few steps to realize something’s wrong.

The air around her is hot. Like she’s sweating. On top of her prickling skin. She senses something near her and honestly, she already knows what it is. Another laser trap.

“Ron.”

“‘Sup?” he grimaces like she’s somehow bothering him.

“Did you  _ actually _ turn off the traps?”

He thinks about it for a second. “I think so.”

“Can you check?” it’s hard not to scream at him.

“I did, Kim. Come on.”

She glares back at him, pursing her lips. Takes another step. She senses something near her knee. She tilts her knee along a horizontal plane and feels the same burn. Invisible lasers. But why would this Idol be more heavily guarded than the diamond?

...Junior didn’t tip his dad off, did he? Well.

Someone had to.

Kim stops. “Ron. Take off your jacket and toss it over.”

“Why?” Ron growls, pulling his jacket off roughly anyways, yanking it off his wrists. “Why don’t you ever trust me?”

She ignores that. “Throw it.”

Ron sneers and lobs it into the air and just as Kim expected it suddenly breaks apart in the air, a burn cleaving through the middle. And then more burns as it falls through the invisible matrix and tumbles off the sides in shreds.

“...oh,” Ron gasps. “I must have—”

Then an alarm goes off and the lights above flash red. Great. 

Kim and Ron’s walkies crackle and Senor Senior Sr.’s voice fill the room. “ _ Ms. Possible and Mr. Stoppable, I am on to your ruse. Now that you have exposed yourselves, expect company. _ ”

Kim gulps.

“ _ Oh, and don’t come looking for your friends. They’ve been taken care of. _ ”

Her heart falls into her stomach and her stomach shoots into her chest. No, they can’t be dead. He’s bluffing. He wouldn’t just… do that.

She checks the walkie line fast and it’s dead. Damn. Something’s blocking her from Shego, Big Daddy, and Hank. 

Kim looks up at Ron, panicking, trying to keep herself from shaking. She has no idea how close she is to death right now. One wrong move and she’s getting burnt. Or worse: severed in two. 

“Kim,” Ron calls out, rolling up his sleeves. “I’ll watch the door, okay?”

“What?!” Kim screams. “No! Help me!”

“I can’t!” he hollers right back. “I don’t think my powers work near this Idol thing, sorry, I’m no good here.”

She blinks. “Ron, you can’t be—you used to work all the time without powers—”

And then he crawls out the exit. Son of a mother fucking bitch! Okay, fine, whatfuckingever. Kim looks back out and slowly slips off her own jacket, and once that’s out she holds it out in front of her like a shield, wincing. Then she slips out her phone and squeezes it between her shoulder and cheek, making a call to one of her speed dial people.

“Please pick up,” she mutters as she trods forward, the jacket catching right away on some lasers. At least it’s doing its job. For now. It’s showing her what’s not safe, but at such a mercilessly slow pace. 

“ _ Yooooo _ ,” Wade says.

!

He picked up!

“ _ Whaaaaaat’s uuuuuuuuup _ —”

“Wade!” Kim screams. “You busy?”

“ _ Kim, _ ” he says stoically, just as she loses her sleeve. In a few more steps there won’t be any jacket left to hold onto. “ _ Is it apocalyptic?” _

“Yeah I might die,” she grunts. “Senor Senior Sr.’s Villa. I need someone to deactivate a laser grid for me. Can you do that?”

“ _ Um. _ ”

“Questions later, help now,” Kim says. “My team mate just bailed on me.”

“ _ Whoa, what? I thought that only happened in movies. _ ”

“Mhm, same, but I shouldn’t be surprised,” she bites her lip. 

“ _...it’s totally Ron, isn’t it? _ ”

“Shut up,” she laughs weakly. The jacket splits in two and she’s only a third of the way across the bridge. “These lasers are invisible. I need to get through though and—” She starts to move faster. Something about talking it out with someone like this makes it easier to pick up on where the lasers are purely on instinct. She drops the jacket and moves forward. “And then I need to double back. But once I take this thing I need off the other thing, there might be more traps?”

“ _ Thing off the thing _ .”

“I’m trying not to get you  _ too _ involved. It’s for your own good.”

“ _ Shit, Kim. I knew you were, involved with, uh, something, and to be honest, I think I know who. _ ”

She blinks. “Really?”

“ _ I mean, I’m pretty well connected. No offense, but people have been talking about it. Betty really doesn’t like you. After the Bortel thing. _ ”

“Shit,” she almost slips and the very edge of her pants leg burns besides her ankle. Wincing, she tries to slow her heart rate and focus. Forward. Forward. Forward. Like swimming, it’ll be fine. 

“ _ You’re in over your head, especially if you have Ron splitting on you. _ ”

“Okay, save the flaying for later, help me. You in yet?”

“ _ Uh, yeah, like the second you needed help, Kim, _ ” Wade laughs. “ _ You surprised?” _

Good ol’ Wade. “Nope. Love ya.”

She stops and squints, very light pink lines appearing before her. Those must be it. “Whatever you’re doing is working, Wade.”

“ _ Of course it is. You know, I’m risking a lot doing this right now. If I get caught… _ ”

“I know, I’m sorry,” now it becomes really easy to make progress. In fact, it’s a cakewalk. “This isn’t what you think it is. They’re doing good work. Global Justice isn’t, a lot of people aren’t.”

Wade’s quiet.

“I’m sorry if that’s hurtful,” Kim mutters, finally making her way through the web. She spares a glance back and damn, the matrix is fully red now, and so dense that she can’t even see the doorway out. “I owe you.”

“ _ Do you want to meet up? Talk? _ ”

“Yeah,” she forces a smile, turning around to grab the Idol. It’s nothing special. Hard to believe it’s like a Kryptonite to Ron. She stuffs it into her backpack, hoping that it’s not going to affect him too badly when she gets closer with the thing in tow. 

Well, Ron should know that. He should know not to rely too much on his powers when she might cut them off any minute… ah, but Ron’s a dumbass. So.

“ _ Is there anything else you need? _ ” Wade asks, somewhat fatigued. 

She takes in a deep breath. “Can you get me a read on… fuck.” She shouldn’t tell him their names. But she doesn’t have a choice. “Can you find Shego? Tell me she’s still alive.”

“ _ Shego!? Oh shit, wait, you _ — _ and Shego?” _

“Yeah,” Kim looks back, takes one step forward and then suddenly a smooth baritone echoes all around the room like in a movie.

“ **Miss Possible, I’ve been expecting you** .”

It’s Senior. God, this whole got so fucked so fast. How did this happen? They were so careful and… she peers between one tiny gap in the lasers and faintly sees him. The actual man. Just standing in the same room as her, clutching a cane. 

“ **I’m on a tight schedule my dear** ,” Senior says, his voice echoing all over. “ **Farewell** .”

Farewell? What could that—

The lasers start moving, just like they did back in the museum. Oh shit. Shit. Shit shit. They’re swooping in on her. Slowly at least. Kim backs up, narrowly avoiding a sudden decapitation and ducks under the next flurry. Short hopping and rolling to avoid more,but there’s nowhere to go. She’s stuck. 

“Wade, can you—”

“ _ I’m working on it! _ ”

“Shit, I’m sorry,” Kim swears, stepping back, boot digging into the edge of the platform. She’s really surrounded now. No way out. “Don’t blame yourself.” 

Fuck, is she really saying this? Yeah, she is. She’s definitely about to die. Least she can do is make sure Wade doesn’t beat himself up for it, it’s not his fault. 

Kim looks off the ledge, a laser coming right to her jaw. Down below, there are no lasers. Only above the bridge. 

Huh.

There’s this sudden spark of inspiration and she lurches off the edge completely, tumbling over. She screams and from Senior’s perspective, she just fell to her death. The lasers should cover what’s really happening: which is her grappling onto the side of the bridge, flipping herself under it, and wedging her limbs into the few creases between metal plates she can find. 

Meanwhile, Wade screams and cries on the other end because he thinks—

“I’m playing possum,” she whispers into her mic. She knows even a whisper might still echo here and could show her hand too early, but she can’t do this. Not to Wade. “Under the bridge.”

“ _ Oh fucking thank god, _ ” Wade wheezes. “ _ I thought _ —”

“I know,” she looks ahead, chancing releasing her hold with one hand. She grabs a crease ahead and slowly pulls herself towards it and within seconds she’s clambering under the bridge like a spider, grinning mischievously. 

“Fuck yeah.”


	24. Chapter 24

Of course Kim runs into a problem right away. Immediately after leaving the vault, Idol in tow, she turns to her left and sees six men plowing into Ron. Behind those men are a pile of bodies, a  _ big _ pile of bodies,  _ eyebrow raising _ kinda big. 

Ron’s getting the shit kicked out of him now, and is showing no signs of coming back from this. What the Hell? Use your powers, idiot. 

Doesn’t matter. Kim sticks two gloved fingers into her lips and lets out the loudest whistle she can. It turns all seven heads. Some orders are made and five goons charge at Kim, leaving Ron with the one. He should be able to manage one guy.

All five have these neon green sabers, kinda like lava lamps. Short like daggers. Cool stuff.

The head goon, or maybe just the bravest, charges at Kim, swinging at her chest. She barely dodges it and the saber cuts through her sweater. She coughs, and falls back. He pursues her hard, swinging and swinging, cutting ribbons out of her sweater. She bides her time, trying to understand his pattern, like a cat, and when she finds it, she pounces.

When the saber is halfway into a slash at the right rib, Kim grabs his wrist, holding it in place and knees him in the gut. Once then twice then three times swiftly followed by a kick to his skull. He falls back, saber slipping from his hand and falling into Kim’s.

The moment he’s down, someone rushes past him, stabbing at her. Now that she has the equipment, she blocks. Tap tap tap tap. It stalls long enough for her to get surrounded. She laughs and rolls backwards, scrunching in and rolling right between the largest goon’s widespread legs. She springs up from behind and grabs him before he can fully turn, stabbing him right in the shoulder. He howls in pain and she shoves him aside.

It’s mean, but she has to; she learned her lesson last time about what happens when you go easy on a crowd.

Stunned, probably at seeing  _ the  _ Kim Possible going dark, the three goons left blink at her stupidly. She smirks and motions for them to come closer. They do, stepping into a triangle around her. She turns at an even pace, keeping track of all three. She drops her hands, dangling them behind her ankles, and scoops up the fallen goon’s saber and her own, by yanking it out of her flesh. 

She grins. They shouldn’t have let her do that. She blows them a kiss and gets ready.

_ Clash clash!  _

Two guys stab at her and she fends them off at the same time, the third guy comes in from the front and she kicks him in the jaw. He falls like timber. Not good enough though. So she twists the sabers around the sabers coming in from her left and right, locking them against hers. The goons’ arms shake and she releases in a sudden twirl. 

They stagger back from the change in force and Kim rushes the guy on the ground, stomping him right in the throat.  _ Crunch _ . She winces. It’s a little gross, she feels the throat push into the curve of her foot. The guy’s stiff body bounces from the impact. 

But there’s no time to dwell on it. There’s a clattering of footsteps from behind her. 

Two sounds paired tightly together. One guy. Kim turns on her side, dodging the goon’s charge and wraps her arms around his waist, throwing the two of them to the ground. She releases him the moment he slams into the tiled floor. 

She moves fast. Takes a knee, and drags the guy over by the shoulder. He’s still trying to collect himself and— _ slam _ . Punch to the face. Just like the last guy, his whole body rocks with her wrath. Blood on her glove.

Kim gets up cooly, not looking at her last guy. She feels invincible, like she really can do anything in this moment. It’s nice… in a sort of sickly way. She moves forward at a slow pace, taking her time, watching Ron struggle with his goon.

It’s so fast she doesn’t even notice it happening, just the aftermath. The goon’s arm plunges down and Ron jerks backwards, right cheek pressed into the wall and—she doesn’t wince. Or look away. She just sees the knife carve down Ron’s cheek and does nothing. Thinks nothing. 

Ron screams and it doesn’t bother her.

She blinks. She can hear blood rushing to her ears. Like an ocean in her head. 

Then her guy roars. Runs at her. She snaps back to the present. She doesn’t bother looking at him, to get him all pissed off and sloppy. She hears him swing and moves, shifting from side to side lightning fast. Dodging slash after slash after slash and then…

...she miscalculates. 

Saber in her side, slides in nice and clean. She gnashes her teeth, biting her own tongue. Draws blood. Her side gets wet fast.

She moves quickly, snagging the guy’s wrist and cracking it. She hears the bones break. She doesn’t care. She shoves him in front of her, pulls the saber out of her side, still caked in her blood, and stabs the guy in the shoulder and kicks him over. 

He sprawls out before her and she almost uses her shoe to push the saber in further but that’d be cruel. And she doesn’t quite know what came over her. Her breathing is heavy and vile, her eyes wide and dry. She tries shaking it off. Calm down, Possible.

Then she moves to save Ron.

The last guy looks at Ron. Then at her. Then at Ron. Then at her. He backs up and she groans, tired of this and moves in, pounding him in the face with one mighty slam that sends him reeling. Ron falls on the floor, scrambling and kicking. Kim stomps over, grabs the goon by the front of his jumpsuit and slams him into the wall besides her and without any hesitation slams her fist into his face aaaaaand…  _ slump _ . That’s enough. She drops him.

Ron laughs, singing her praises, but she doesn’t look at him.  _ Can’t _ look at him. Fucker. 

“Okay, okay, whatever, you’re moody.” Ron groans and gets up, dusting himself off. “You know, I had that before you came in.”

“ _ Had that _ ?” Kim whirls on him immediately. He looks like shit. Ruffled hair, a fountain of blood dripping down his left cheek, and a black eye to boot. Now he knows how it feels to get his ass kicked at least. 

Kim laughs. “You are such a compulsive liar.”

“I am not!” he squeals. “That fucking Idol, dude. It killed my powers at the worst time and now—”

She didn’t think of that, the Idol thing. Too much of a panic. But she still can’t help herself. “You left me for  _ dead. _ ”

His eyes bulge out of his head, just like they do before he gets violent, and he takes one long stride towards her. “I GAVE YOU YOUR BEST CHANCE OF—”

“ _ GUYS! _ ” Wade cuts in. Right. Wade. Still here.

Ron draws back, jaw shifting so hard it clicks. “You brought  _ Wade _ in? Since when?”

Kim blinks rapidly, trying to process that. “When you left me for dead you—”

“Oh so what was his vetting process like, huh?” Ron growls. “Because  _ I _ —”

“ _ Ron, stop it, _ ” Wade spits, and it’s kinda nice hearing him turn on Ron like that. “ _ You too, Kim. _ ”

Oh. Well. That’s fair. 

“ _ I have details on how to get Shego, and an idea on where the goons are placed, I’m sending it to you now, Kim. _ ”

Kim narrows her eyes.

“Cool,” Ron says. “Bee-tee-dubbs, kiddo.  _ I _ can’t be near  _ her _ because of this Idol thing.”

Kim reaches under her sweater, unable to stave off her anger any longer, and does it. She pulls a gun on Ron. Aimed right at his skull.

Ron just laughs. Like this is all some joke to him. “Dude, you know to never point your gun at someone like that, right? Could hurt someone.”

Kim doesn’t flinch and that’s when Ron catches on. “Oh.”

“ _ Oh? _ ” Wade says. “ _ What’s happening? _ ”

“Ron, you’re done,” Kim says, voice icy and so unlike her. She can actually pull a trigger like this. “I don’t know what’s going on but I don’t trust you, and I’m not okay letting you be the one to save Shego. I have to be there but apparently because of this Idol… no. Leave. Now.”

Ron’s shock fades and he smiles in such a sick way. He struts up to her, until he’s right in front of the gun. She can feel his breath on her. “You wouldn’t.”

The gun clicks. “Yeah? Try me. I know it won’t kill you.”

“Do you?” he purses his lips.

“Yes.”

He stays perfectly still and finally when the tension drops, so does his scowl. He turns away, waving over his shoulder. “Fine, whatever. Text me how it went later.”

Kim drops the gun to her thigh, a sigh building up in her throat, but Ron’s still close enough to hear. “Wade, kill Ron’s connection please.” She turns on her heel and heads the other way, not even sure if that’s where she needs to go to help. 

Thank God he didn’t call her bluff. She knows Ron is a terrific asset but… something just seems  _ off _ . And already her anxiety is fading, and she feels light as a feather. In control. She’s back to being the girl who can do anything.

“Sorry you had to see that,” she says to Wade when she’s sure she’s far enough. 

“ _ It’s okay. I don’t know what happened, but I trust you more than him. Did you get the blueprints? _ ”

She blinks and checks her comms. “Yes.”

That’s when the Spinning Tops of Doom come in.

* * *

“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me,” Kim moans as gigantic black tops slam their way down the twisting hallway, their drills carving up the tiles in their way. If she squints, she can make out glinting gray twirling around the tops. Probably blades. 

Kim wets her lips, thinking. She has about one second to think before she has to get moving because damn they’re fast. 

Gears in her mind turn. 

And she dashes right down the middle. Between the tops.

“ _ Kim, what are you doing?! _ ” Wade screams.

Kim quickly silences the walkie feed. She needs to focus. 

After several long strides, she’s so close, and she dives down, sliding across the floor on her knees. The tops swerve in towards her and she grins. She’s got this. 

Each top is, well, top heavy and as they press closer together, it leaves her a small gap between drills. Small enough for her to—

_ Shwing! _

—she’s through, slips right between the tops, the blades skimming above her head in a chaotic flurry of ear splitting sound. Then the tops crash into each other and ricochet in opposite directions. Both tops slam into a wall, blades beating themselves against steel and subsequently getting bent up. 

Kim cracks her head up and without even really looking, she fires off a grapple line. It snags onto a vent, hook embedded in a metal plate. 

The tops bounce down the walls like a stone skips across a pond.

Kim sweats. She swings her foot over the grapple line and kicks down on it, hard, and it yanks out a metal plate. Square and jagged. She steps aside as it crashes against the floor. She checks on the tops.

Finally they are regaining control and dart at her again. This time, just one top. One stays behind. AI that can learn. Great.

She refires the grapple line and swoops upward, crashing into the vent. It’s a tight fit but it gets her away for a second. No room to roll over, she lies on her back, forced to keep her hands on her stomach. Nowhere else to put them.

The tops buzz about, swirling around in tight circles directly below her. She puts Wade back on. “What are my options?”

“ _ What kind of gadgets do you have? _ ”

“Nothing of note,” she sighs, face scrunching up as she inches herself forward until she can look through the hole she knocked out. “Shit this was a bad idea.”

“ _ How confident are you in your gymnastics? _ ”

She rolls her eyes. “I can’t exactly do a flip in here.”

“ _ No. Not that. Hear me out. _ ”

Wade explains his idea.

Kim frowns. “I hate you.”

* * *

Kim scrunches up like a ball, tight in the vent, and slowly unrolls, dangling her upper body outside of the vent first. The tops continue to twirl. Fuck, this is hard. She swings back and then forward. Gently. Back and forth. Back and forth. Slowly building up the momentum. She only needs a little to fall out off-center.

All the while she shimmies her way out and when it’s just about time, she holds her hands out in front of her, her shoes kicked into the sides of the hole the only thing keeping her up. 

She shuts her eyes. She’s done this before. Cake mix. She was in a big bowl of cake mix and a mixer came in to shred her. She grabbed it. 

“ _ Go with the flow _ ” or something like that, is what Ron told her. But thinking of Ron doesn’t help. So she just shoves herself out, falls, and grabs onto the very top of the, uh, top. The blades twirl just below her fingers and with the constant turning, it’s hard as fuck to keep herself in a perfect handstand on top of the thing. 

She eyes the other top, head swirling already. Colors blur and everything feels fake.

She needs to move fast before she passes out from how dizzy this is making her. But she kinda likes the rush. 

She pushes her wrists out as hard as she can each time the top turns to where its closest to the other one. Again and again, she pushes. And pushes. And it edges the top across the floor. It turns that tight circle pattern into an oval. One that’s about to crossover with the other top and—

—she leaps off and hits the ground hard on her side. She scuttles backwards fast as her top drives forward and slams the other one into the wall besides it. Instead of bouncing off, they stick together. The blades are so bent up from Kim’s last trick that they hook together this time. This quickly creates a jam between both tops, and because the blades can’t spin, everything else does. 

The tops spin along the walls, metal rings and gizmos unfurling dramatically as the tops whittle themselves away and finally, they fall to the floor. Scrap metal.

Kim gets up slowly and shakes her arms out, catching her breath. “Holy shit.”

But it doesn’t end there, it never does. 

Mooks come pouring in from around the corner and charge at her. 

She gulps. And leans into her heel, throwing her fists up.

* * *

“I don’t have much,” she mutters herself, wincing as the minions draw closer and closer. All fully garbed in their costumes with acid green visors, single hole like a knight. Scary looking shit. Kinda like Drakken’s Synthodrones. “Just give it your best, Possible.”

Kim sprints ahead. Her limbs snap as hard as they can, pushing her forward as fast as possible. She moves as fast as lightning, or at least it feels that way, so fast it throws off the goons in front. She smiles to herself when she sees two goons dig their heels into the floor. They don’t react fast enough, still. She pounds the two of them in the head with an ape-like pounding as she charges in. Fists dug into the faces of two goons, she drags their bodies into the mob and rolls off them. 

The mooks cry out as she slinks about among them; God, there’s so many. She sweep kicks several in the calves and shoots up like a spring, arms swinging. She gets about five down before they all finally catch up. And then all she can do is block. Their arms and feet come in like hammers. Her hands move about rapidly, blocking. But it’s blocking, not dodging, so it fucking hurts. Her limbs push against her joints, begging her to try something else. But she can’t. 

Wait. 

She chances it, slips past a kick to the jaw and hooks her ankle around a goon’s. It gives her enough leverage to support her body for a fraction of a second as she spins into the air, unfurling her foot and kicking one guy in the groin as she flops out of the mob. She dives back in like a bull, punching and kicking with everything she has. She is  _ not _ letting them force her to the defense. She needs heads rolling. And they do fall.

But she’s dizzy. And exhausted. And numb. And alone. 

She can’t even count the men, it’s just a blur of color. She spits blood and fights like Hell, almost wishing she didn’t tell Ron to fuck off. She spins and and moves but it doesn’t seem like she’s going anywhere, the pain is starting to bleed in. Around her ribs.

Then someone nails her in the side of the head and she falls over, catching herself in a push-up. And spits blood on the ground. She flips over and kicks. Someone plows into her, and tosses her upwards, slamming her against the wall. 

She wishes she could look this fucker in the eye, it might make him stop. But here she is, worthless and just about dead.

The fists crash into her chest, stomach, her everything. Quick and precise, they retract and strike back like snakes. Again and again and again and again and—

—she’s been here before, with Cagan—

—how could she have fucked this up—

—how could she be feeling this twice in her life—

—he stops. Grapples her by the waist and hurls her through the air. She flies and lands on her back, spitting up more blood. She looks past her chest and sees a pile of people. Holy shit. Did she do that? There’s just one left. 

More blood comes from her mouth, she has to spit to get rid of it. She growls, nostrils flaring, pupils dilating.

He walks towards her and drops to his knees. And he grabs her by the throat, no, he doesn’t grab her he  _ chokes _ her. Pushes her down and she has nothing to look at, just a scary visor. Her arms flap at him uselessly, trying to push him away, and when it becomes obvious that won’t work her arms flap backwards, limp. 

Her hands flail across the floor, searching for something, anything that could—

—her fingertip brushes against the side of metal. It moves under her hand and spins closer to her palm. She grabs it.

It’s the plate she knocked out of the vent. Small. In her hand. Jagged at the edges. Really jagged, it wasn’t a clean break. She rolls the plate around until she has that end facing the right away. And then.

She grits her teeth and doesn’t hesitate; she stabs the guy through the visor with the metal. 

There’s screaming. The guy reels backwards, the plate stuck in the helm, not moving. He won’t stop. 

She leans upwards and tries to get onto her feet, but she trips and falls over herself. Arms shake as she tries again to get up. She stares at him, blinking in amazement, wondering when he’ll finally go down. But he doesn’t, he just keeps… screaming. She probably cut his eyes—no—best not think about—

— _ “Probably,” Ron said only twenty minutes ago. “I don’t think much about it.” _ —

—it makes her sick. She bites her lip and it’s tears that mix in with her blood and sweat. 

Grabs that gun she aimed at Ron and aims at the guy’s throat. 

_ Bang! _

_ Thump. _

Silence.

Good. 

She put him out of his misery. She’s thankful she can’t see what she did to him with the plate jammed in like that.

She boosts herself up onto her elbows, looking ahead. “Wade,” her voice cracks, it’s low and weak. Fuck, she’ll have to go to the hospital again… she boosts herself up higher. “Where are they. Tell me where to go.”

“ _ Kim… _ ” Wade’s voice is so soft and gentle. “ _ Stay put. _ ”

“What?” she chokes. “No. I have to… have to…”

“ _ Help is on the way. _ ”

“Who?” she falls against the floor, very aware of her sticky blood. “No… fuck, Wade, I’m sorry…”

“ _ Just try to stay awake, Kim. _ ”

There’s noise up ahead. It’s people. More goons. Kim winces and pushes herself back to her feet, arms shaking, not giving her any real support.

“ _ Kim _ .”

“Wade, I have to.”

Helmets emerge, bobbing up and down like horses. There are so many. 

Twenty or more maybe.

They face her head on, and charge. Within seconds she’ll either be plowed over or stuck somewhere in the middle, fighting them off from all sides. She’s not sure. Depends on if she can stand her ground. 

She opens her mouth, blood stretching into a web at her lips.

“This is what I do.”

And then  _ BOOM! _ the wall to the goons’ left erupts in a blast of lime green light, so bright, it hides everything from view, so strong it knocks Kim over and onto her back. She hits the floor hard, finding something to hold onto to get back up.

And then a hand appears before her, waiting for her to reach up. 

Kim tries her best and takes Shego by the wrist, locking eyes with her. 

And then passes out.

* * *

Kim wakes up and the light is blinding. She tries to raise her wrist to block it out but leather pushes against her bare wrist. Something’s binding her. She winces and leans back, vision coming to her slowly. The ceiling is gray, and high up.

Rafters, blinding fluorescents. White, gray, and brown. She narrows her eyes, and she sees the dust floating around her. Warehouse. She shifts in place. Hospital gown, stops around her knees, very light. Fuck. Her other stuff is gone. Shego probably undressed her or something.

“Oh! You’re awake!” Hank Perkins leans in with a proud leer, standing directly over her. 

It scares her for a second, just at how sudden it is.

“Are we… in a warehouse?” Kim groans, voice dark and musty. She tries to get up again.

“Yes,” Hank purses his lips. “Dementor, go fetch Shego please!” He turns back to Kim. “She’s close by, just taking a minute. You’re going to be fine by the way, just took a bit of a beating.”

Kim tries nodding but it’s too much energy. “Why am I in a warehouse?”

“Good question,” Hank is so damn  _ chipper _ . “Putting you in a hospital again is a little risky, considering you’re supposed to be in civilian mode right now.  _ So _ . We’re taking care of you here, or rather, Dementor is. Don’t worry, he’s very good.”

“Ah,” Kim says. “Can you get me some water?”

“It’s right here!” Hank grabs a plastic cup and brings it over. She bends up to drink from it, pulling against her restraints again, forgetting her hands are strapped down.

“Hank, can you…”

“Right away, sorry, you, uh, came to earlier, and… best not discuss it right now,” he sets the cup aside and unstraps one hand. Good. She raises it up and wow, it’s sore. Even squeezing her fingers hurts. Her knuckle is purple, it’s a lot to take in. She sighs and creaks over, drinking from the water slowly. It’s warm and not enough. But she sets the cup aside and falls back into the bed like everything’s fine. 

That’s when Shego comes in. Her hair’s frayed and her collar’s undone. She seems tired, at least, before she smiles. The smile fills her with such joy. She moves quickly over and takes Kim’s hand right away

Kim strains to smile. “How long have I been out?”

“A few hours,” Shego says simply. “You were… something else, Kimbo.”

Kim blinks. “Is that—”

“It’s good,” Hank bows his head in before turning to take Dementor by the back. “Come, we’ll give them some space.” 

“Vhy?” Dementor asks in the distance. 

Shego rolls her eyes. “Kimmie, you took out like two waves of goons on your—”

“Oh, jah so they’re fucking?” Dementor asks.

Shego flinches. “—own, heh. Because you did that, it got enough heat off me and let me come to your rescue.”

The door shuts behind the two men, leaving Kim alone with Shego. Kim keeps her lips pressed in a toothless smile. Shego nods and reaches forward, playing with Kim’s hair. “Do you… uh, want to talk about it?”

“...it?” Kim sighs. “What??”

Shego cracks an awkward grin, looking at Kim she’s kidding around. “Well, I’m glad he’s out of your mind already. Douche.”

“...oooooooh, hiiiiiiim,” Kim sinks deeper into her pillow, eying the ceiling. “He uh… it’s complicated.”

Shego continues to play with Kim’s hair, stooped over her. Kim kinda wishes Shego would just lean down and kiss her already, but noooooo. They need to debrief. 

“Turns out being near the Idol makes him lose his powers,” Kim rasps. “When that came up, he bailed and left me for dead. When I found him later, he was getting his ass kicked.”

Shego snorts.

“Apparently,” Kim shakes her head with just her eyes. “He was doing okay fighting off goons until I brought the Idol over, which is when he threw a tantrum and… I asked him to go.” 

Shego blinks. “Oh?”

“Yeah, he was in my way,” Kim groans. “I, uh, pulled a gun on him actually. I wouldn’t have—but he didn’t call my bluff, sooooo…” 

Shego nods as if that’s all well and good and looks at something apparently very interesting on the other side of the warehouse, and Kim just lies there.

“I killed someone,” Kim says faintly. 

Shego looks down at her but doesn’t say anything, waiting patiently for more. 

Kim bites her lip slowly, and just sighs. No words.

“You don’t have to talk about it,” Shego whispers.

Kim shakes her head with a strained smile. “He was choking me. I didn’t really have a choice. I guess. I stabbed him in the face and he wouldn’t stop screaming so I… I put him out of his misery.”

Kim chuckles to herself.

“What?” Shego’s eyes flutter. 

“It’s just…” Kim laughs again. “...at least this won’t be a tabloid, right? This man I killed… he’ll just vanish, no one will ever really know. And I’m fine, too. I don’t feel anything.”

“Give it time,” Shego urges, massaging Kim’s shoulder now. “You don’t need to have your feelings set right away, there’s uh, a lot going on. Obviously.”

“We got the Idol at least,” Kim says. 

“Yep.”

“Do we know if it’ll  _ really _ do its thing? Nope.”

“Nope,” Shego repeats.

Kim’s eyes open as her face sinks back into its resting position. She watches the ceiling. It’s so gross. All these rafters and…

“I’m a bad person, aren’t I?” Kim chokes.

“N-no, you’re—”

“This is where bad people get stitched up,” she hears her voice strain so hard .She doesn’t really feel the tears but she knows they’re there. “Like in movies. Private mobster doctors and stuff. And I’ve killed two people now.”

“Kim, you—”

“And for what?” Kim manages to turn her head enough to look Shego dead in the eye, and she sees fear in her. “For what, Shego?”

Shego strains hard to make herself smile. “You’re a survivor, Kim. It’s what you do.” 

Kim’s eyes stay glassy and she looks to the ceiling. “Surviving to do what, though?”


	25. Chapter 25

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ron pays Kim a visit.

Ron’s voice echoes down the hall leading to the warehouse. “So the Idol’s not here?”

“No,” Shego grunts. “We flew it out with the others, because we’re aware of your… condition. Listen, you help Kimmie and go. That’s it.”

“Yeah, whatever.”

Kim sighs, twitching in her restlessness. She doesn’t want to do this. Doesn’t want to see him again. But he can heal people, and he’s the easy way out of this problem she has. She needs him. Which fucking sucks.

Ron stops, eyes widening at the sight of her. His jaw drops, eyes going wide. She scoffs, because she’s seen this before. This playacting of what he thinks empathy is. Ron walks over slowly, hands outstretched, lips pursed. “Oh no, no no… Kim. KP. What… what happened?”

“What do you think?” Shego says, and it gives Ron a jolt. He was so focused on Kim apparently, he forgot she was lurking right behind his shoulder. “Asshole. You ditched her.”

“Shego,” Kim hisses. “I’d like to do the flaying.”

Shego grinds her teeth, then bows her head.

Kim turns back on Ron. “Fuck you. I could have died.” 

Ron grits his teeth and frowns, arms slack.

His silence pisses her off. “Ron.”

He clenches his fists, and she sees his white lips tremble. Like he’s mouthing something. Under his breath. She hates that.

“Look at me!” she shouts. 

He flinches, still babbling silence, but then he bites his lip and cringes wide. Digs his hands into his pockets, dancing backwards in his nervousness. 

It’s… bizarre.

“Ron,” she says, trying to keep her control over the situation. “What.”

He sighs deeply and falls into place, looking at the floor and shaking his head. “I’m sorry.” 

She blinks. That’s… that’s it?”

He looks up and shrugs. He still hasn’t healed his wounds, black eye and all. The mark below his eye is a scar now, it looks like someone cracked his head open and did a bad job putting it back together.

“What do you want me to say? I’m worthless around those Idols and I chickened out. I’d have helped you without powers before and… I don’t know, I’m a coward. And I’m looking at what they did to you and… no. No more. This isn’t about me, let me just… work. Okay?”

She sighs. This isn’t going as she expected. “Fine.”

“Okay.” His eyes go blue. She winces when his tendrils of power touch her, tickling her skin. He stays focused on her, staring right at her. She’d like to stare back, but she can’t. Not when he’s doing this, too many… negative associations.

“You’re guilty,” Shego observes. 

“Yeah,” Ron frowns. “I’d rather keep the topic off me, it’s not important.”

“You know you can never work with us again,” Shego gets closer.

Kim feels split skin re-patch itself while bruises soften and vanish. 

“I know,” Ron speaks like someone just punched him in the gut. “It was a mistake. You’d have been better off without me.”

“We would have,” Kim manages to grunt out. “But… thank you. For coming back.”

A smile crosses his white lips that both angers and pleases her. He steps back and drops the power. “That oughta be it. You uh, in any other pain I can fix?”

Kim shakes her head. “Shego?”

Shego smirks and reaches under her jacket. “You got it, Doc.”

Ron raises an eyebrow. “What? What are you guys talking—”

Shego moves nimbly, taking one lunge towards Ron as she yanks something out from under her jacket. She spins it and slides it into Ron’s hand, skipping back to stay away.

It’s the Idol. 

The very moment the carved stone slides against Ron’s palms, there’s a wild blue spark that erupts and an almost deafening boom. At least on a surface level. Kim squints through the eruption and notices a tiny barrier, thin as a thimble, bubbled around the Idol for the scant moment it’s on Ron. 

Then the blast fades and Ron is halfway across the room on his back, the Idol falling to the floor. Shego slides forward and catches it just before it hits the floor and smirks at Kim. 

Kim grins back and gets to her feet, bare feet on the cold, dusty floor. She leers at Ron, eying him curiously. He scrambles to his feet and throws his hands in the air. He starts to talk, but she cuts him off and her voice is  _ cold _ . 

“You shouldn’t lie to me, Ron. I’ve seen it enough to know your tells.”

He doesn’t say anything, just winces. Desperate. 

“So you can use your powers around the Idols, hmmm…” She sticks out her lower lip, feigning thinking. “Start talking, asshole.”

Ron shuffles back but with every step he takes, Kim just takes one stride forward, as does Shego. It’s not long before they have him cornered. Setting him up was easy, really easy. She’s surprised he didn’t figure it out, but whatever. 

Ron still doesn’t say anything so Kim shrugs, like,  _ Okay? _

He grimaces and growls, slouching up against the wall, staring up at the ceiling. “You’re going to laugh.”

“Try me,” Kim sneers.

“I want out,” he says, and when she doesn’t laugh, he looks at her, mildly surprised. “I don’t like fighting, or any of this shit. I mean, you know Kim, I only did the missions to help you and—” he loses his train of thought, staring at Shego. “—does she really need to be here?”

“Yes,  _ she  _ does,” Shego spits before Kim can say pretty much the same thing. 

Ron sighs and continues, “I thought, ya know, if I make myself dead weight, you’d be done with me.” He shrugs like he’s finished, and then snaps his fingers when he remembers something else. “Oh! And I never left, like, Kim, I helped you take out all like, thirty guys or whatever.”

Kim grits her teeth, remembering how that went. “Nooo…? That was me.”

That’s when he smirks and  _ ugh  _ it pisses her off. “I made stuff hit you a little less harder, you didn’t notice because your adrenaline and shit was so high, it—I’m serious, you gotta believe me.”

Kim bites her lip, running through the past few minutes. “When you touched the Idol, was that real? You really can’t touch them?”

“No, I can’t,” Ron says. “And uh, here’s another white lie, you’ll figure it out eventually. I already knew about the Idols, KP.”

Kim groans. God dammit. “Why didn’t you… say something earlier? I had to Skype with fucking Monkey Fist to get this far.”

Ron just stares, and she sees it bubble in his throat, this thought he’s not comfortable saying out loud.

“Spit it out,” she says.

“Okay,” he exhales. “I didn’t say anything because it’s dangerous. Like,  _ this _ ? This wasn’t too bad. But I’ve tried to get one before, and it didn’t work because obviously—” he splays his hands in the air. “—I can’t touch the thing, so. S’how I learned.”

“Where.” Kim says immediately.

“Where do you think?”

She blinks, mouth hanging open, waiting for an idea. “Yamanouchi!”

“You got it, Sensei has one,” Ron replies. “And it’s well-defended, really well defended. You two would get killed trying to… and I wouldn’t be able to help you. Sensei can sense my aura or something. I don’t know. He knows what you’re doing and he is not down with killing the Mystical Monkey Power.”

“That’s too bad,” Kim growls. “What good is it for it to exist if its owner is reluctant?”

Suddenly, Shego’s hands fall on Kim’s shoulders and her black lips brush against her earlobe. “ _ You’re playing into him too much. Assume everything he says is bullshit, okay, Princess? _ ”

Some red crawls into Kim’s cheeks but she wills it away fast. Ron is in some kind of explanation about Sensei’s plans or whatever and she swats at the air. Ron immediately shuts up. 

“I don’t want anymore contact with you,” she says. “Not until we get the Idols. And I will get them.”

Ron sighs and leans back against the wall, sympathy shining in his eyes. “It’s not a good idea, KP. Sensei will stop you.”

“Yeah? How.”

“‘Cause,” Ron purses his lips playfully. “You’re going to have to hold onto  _ two _ Idols now. The Seniors have better security than you, right?”

Kim keeps her poker face on. 

“So you’ll be even harder pressed to protect them, and sorry, but Sensei trumps the Bermuda Triangle any day,” Ron shakes his head. “You’re fucked. Once he knows where you’re at, you’re done.”

Shego steps forward. “Is that a threat?”

“No,” Ron shakes his head. “I’m just guessing. Seriously. I don’t—Kim, I’ll leave your life, it’s fine, just… I don’t know, be careful?”

Kim’s throat tightens and she stays still for a moment, thinking. Thinking for so long Shego looks back to her. 

Kim sighs and shakes her head. “Okay.”


End file.
